Childhood Martyrs
by Miss. Alaneous
Summary: To be given a second chance to live, but not to love. To be given the chance to overthrow, but not to balance. These are the options Thalia Grace has been given. THUKE. Replaces books after TLO.
1. Prologue

**_Prologue_**

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><p><em>It begins with wind, a steady breeze that twists leaves over the sidewalk and makes oceans of grass ripple with lazy waves. The wind is the catalyst, bringing the clouds in, rumbling angry clouds that push forward as if charging to take over the skies, the sun is overtaken, and it soon is dark. The clouds thunder, a rich booming that echoes as it warns the parched ground below that a storm is coming, and it begins to rain. The rain comes down in sheets, wetting the ground and soaking the streets, it runs in rivers down the sidewalks into the gutters. A row of ants are washed away, then their ant hole is drowned, a devastation, but a small one. The rain continues, pitter pattering on the packed down dirt and the asphalt roads, then the climax of the storm, lightning. A bluish white arch of electricity, power, and <strong>life, <strong>the lighting seethes with life, so much life, that if it were to touch you, you would be overwhelmed and would die from being too full of it. _

_The storm is a symphony, a thundering percussion, a windy string section playing a soft undertone to the flashes of cymbals and the rhythmic rain fall. Another spidery bolt knifes across the sky, quickly followed by other flashes. Then their solo is over, and the lightning stops, as does the thunder. The rain falls in one more gust before it too retires. The wind continues, blowing the symphony away, sweeping over the soaking and refreshed stage before it too dies down._

_One who understood the music, who listened to the symphony as it played, sat cross legged under a tree, her hands on her lap and her eyes closed reverently with her face tilted up to the sky. A boy sat beside her, drinking in the sight of her as she drank in the music of the storm. He touched her cheek lightly, disturbing a trail of raindrops clinging to her skin, and she smiled faintly as she looked over at him, knowing that he didn't hear the music, as he only saw the conductor._


	2. Memory 1: Closets

_-__Hell is for children-_

_Pat Benetar_

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><p>Thalia was currently hiding in the school janitor's closet.<p>

Crouching awkwardly, with her knees pulled up to her chest, she tried not to make any noise, tried desperately to disappear. She had been huddled there since her kindergarten teacher had suddenly attacked her, with serrated claws and fangs that had sprouted out of nowhere. Thalia had dashed out of the room in terror and darted into this closet, and had been here for over half an hour, too afraid to peek out in case the monster was waiting for her out there.

She trembled as she desperately waited for the home bell to ring so she could get home. She had learned not to upset her teachers or her mother by talking about the monsters that seemed to follow her. So she hid in this closet every time an attack happened, which was often. The principal thought she was a problem child, and because of this status, she was watched constantly by teachers children and parents alike.

Finally, the bell rang, releasing the small six-year-old from her crouched position. She peeked nervously out the door, before darting quickly outside, her pink sandals slapping against the pavement as she joined the other kindergarteners as they awaited their parents.

Tucking her bright yellow dress under her as she sat down on the pink-painted wooden bench she waited for her mother to come and drive her home. Sighing, she tucked a strand of ebony hair behind her ear as she watched parents bend down to hug their sons and daughters, kissing them on their noses or cheeks and taking their hands as they lead them to their cars. Hurt blossomed in the her young heart as she watched her classmate's wave to each and every one of their friends, saying goodbye with hugs and toothy grins, of course none of them were waving at her, because she was the problem child, the one who their parents told them to stay away from. She didn't understand why, but because she was young, she didn't dwell on it too long.

So she kept waiting for her mother, until she was the last one there, still sitting there on the bench beside the swings. The sun began to dip under the horizon, and the playground was washed with golden light as Thalia yawned; checking the tiny watch on her chubby wrist, it was six o'clock. She had been waiting for her mother for two hours now. Her lower lip trembled and she ducked her head as she climbed down from the bench, and grabbed her backpack.

The street lights went on as night settled over Manhattan, and cars drove by, not noticing the crying toddler in the yellow dress and the pink flowered backpack walking alone on the sidewalk. Thalia kept walking, stumbling down the sidewalk; her house was a forty minute drive from her school, so it would be at least an hour and a half before she got home.

Her mother was a soap star; she was semi-famous for playing the girl gone wrong in a popular show that she was fired from. Thalia knew just how easy it was for her mother to play that role. Thalia wasn't a stranger to being left behind; it was just something her mother did. It wasn't as if Thalia wanted to go to the parties that her mother loved, they were loud, long, heavy parties with old people who liked to laugh at her and pinch her cheeks too hard.

Not to mention it was actually easier when her mother wasn't around, to forgive her and forget the nights she came home drunk and angry. But because she was six years old, and because she didn't have anyone else, she repeatedly forgave, and was repeatedly crushed every time her mother forgot about her.

Destiny Grace the Soap Star didn't have a daughter, since she hadn't gotten an abortion like she had wanted, as her manager couldn't find a doctor who wouldn't report it to the paparazzi, so Thalia was hidden away, and registered under a fake last name in school. That meant no one could come over to her house, and her mother wouldn't show up for any school activities.

The six year old climbed the steps to the large house; she'd had to climb over their iron gate to get in, and knocked on the door. The nanny opened it for her, gasping and covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening and clouding with tears, but she just hurried Thalia in and took her backpack, rambling in some unknown language, determined not to look at the young girl again. Thalia tugged a piece of hair back from her eyes, scrunching her tiny round face into a grimace as she heard her mother's high pitched laughter echo down the spiral stair case.

She kicked her dirty pink sandals off and climbed the stairs that lead to her mother's room. Not able to reach the banister yet, she crawled up on all fours, pretending she was an animal, as she reached for the next step. She reached the top of the stairs and turned to her mother's room, standing on her tiptoes to wrap her tiny fingers around the golden doorknob she turned it and it swung open.

Her mother's room was painted a dark purple, the color of rich wine. A vanity table with a polished gold trim on the left side, was overtaken by make up and fancy looking boxes, all designer labels, on the other side of the room there was a dark wooden table, on top of which was an assortment of wine, whiskey, brandy, vodka and other alcohol. The hardwood floor was littered with clothes, empty bottles and papers. A massive bed sat in the middle of the room, framed by golden metal and purple curtains, it was a beautiful bed, Thalia supposed, but she wasn't looking at the bed, she was looking at her mother, who was in the bed, with a man.

Hearing the door open, the portly man flipped hastily to the other side of the bed, as her mother drew the covers around herself and sat up with a start. She caught sight of her daughter, staring at her with a mixture in astonishment, humiliation, and fury. Thalia stood at the door, her tiny fist still holding the doorknob, her mouth open in a small _o._ Swallowing hard, she took a step back and closed the door, hearing the fat bald man swear and laugh, and her mother whisper yelling about how she hated children and how she hoped this wouldn't interfere with her audition.

Shell-shocked, Thalia stumbled back down the spiral stair case, on two feet, half-hoping her mother would come after her, to tell her everything was fine, that the fat balding man wasn't going to stay, that she was _sorry_ that she forgot to pick her up from school. But even at six years old Thalia wasn't that naive. So she just descended into her basement room, and sank into a heap on her bed, and cried silent tears, hoping no one would hear her, and tried to forget what she had just seen.

she glanced up at the full length mirror on her wall. all she saw was a small scared girl in a grubby yellow dress, with half of her hair coming loose of her pony tail, and red rimmed eyes, staring back from a pale face, sprinkled with freckles and dirt.

She huffed, this was not her. she tore off the dress angrily, standing and staring defiantly at the mirror in her underwear, puffing her tiny chest out as she wiped her face free of tears. She would not be the crying little girl in the yellow dress again.

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><p><strong>first chapter done! whoot whoot!<strong>

**sorry if it starts off slow, its building up ;)**

**meh, i'm really not all that sorry... **

**CC welcome, if sometimes ignored, flamers can go die ;)**

**meep. **

**-Miss. Alaneous 3**


	3. Chapter 1: Hunting

-_Few people even scratch the surface; much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience-_  
><em>Randolph Bourne<em>

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><p>The deer bounded over the forest floor. It could sense something chasing it, and it knew only the instinct to<em> run. <em>It could hear its pursuer bounding over the forest floor almost as easily as itself. It felt the danger as its hunter slowly gained ground, heard as a bow was pulled out, heard the _twang_ as an arrow was released, and in a last sprint of fear; it leaped over a fallen tree.

It was dead before it landed.

An arrow was protruding out the back of the deer's head, a clean shot, killing it quickly and painlessly. The hunter crept out from the shadows, letting the moon fall on her face as she pulled off the dark hood covering her head. The moon light danced across her raven hair, and washing over her pale face, casting shadows over her closed eyes, as she offered a chaste prayer up to the goddess she served.

This was done out of necessity, not out of any concrete respect for the goddess. After pulling out the arrow, and cleaning it off, she called to the wolves that had come with her, which eagerly started to pick at the dead animal carcass. The hunter looked away with distaste, before turning away and returning silently to the camp. Receiving nods of respect from the other hunters, required by the silver circlet on her head, she retired to her tent.

She fell onto her cot, and closed her eyes, almost trancelike, she began to inhale and exhale, and outside, the wind began to mimic her steady breathing.

In,

Out,

In,

Out,

Push,

Pull,

In,

Out,

She loved this feeling, the feeling of the wind like an extension of her body, the feeling of the shifting clouds, the feeling of the pent up rain and energy inside of them. She knew that if she chose to, she could release the energy, and rain, and wind, throwing them together, recklessly combining and mixing, all it took was for her to loosen the hold she had on the knotted energy contained inside her.

She had thought about releasing her storm before, it was different than any other storm she had created, more powerful, more out of control, but she hasn't yet, she had the feeling that if she released her storm, she would be releasing herself, and would cease to be. The idea was tempting, but, she knew too much about the underworld to risk being sent there. Now, with her pain and her storm were both locked away inside of her, she felt like a shell, waiting for her breaking point.

"Lieutenant?"

A small blonde girl around eleven years old timidly peeked into the tent, the huntress reluctantly opened her eyes, lifting herself off the cot, and masking her face with a stoic expression. She nodded curtly to the other girl. Bowing quickly she shakily offered Thalia a small silver phone, at which the hunter raised her eyebrows incredulously, someone had called her? She took the phone none the less, and motioned for the girl to leave. Technology was scarce in the camp, with a single phone used by the camp or Olympus, it was hardly ever used, as the hunters preferred to use iris messaging. Lying back on the cot she raised the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Thalia!"

"Annabeth?"

"Obviously," the line crackled over her words, "Hey, when's your next camp visit?"

"Whenever I want, Artemis is at some Olympian counsel meet for the next week... why?"

"Something's happened... here at camp..."

Thalia grimaced; she would always imagined Annabeth as a seven year old, bothering her for food, or to carry her for a while, or snuggled up in both hers, and _his_ coat. But she wasn't a child anymore, and due to Thalia's aging being halted more than once she was actually older than the raven haired girl. But Annabeth would always be her family, in the place of a little sister, or daughter even, and as much as Thalia tried to forget, Annabeth brought painful memories back. Shaking her head, she responded in a teasing tone so that Annabeth wouldn't guess at her thoughts.

"Did the Seaweed Brain cheat on you?" She asked mock serious, "is this a call for back up? Because you know what I can do to-"

"Thalia, please be serious."

"I'm being perfectly serious."

"Thalia."

"pfft your no fun anymore kiddo… When do you want me to come by?"

"As soon as you can, and maybe it would be better if you don't bring the hunters."

"Hmm… secretive."

"Your one to talk," Annabeth snorted over the line, "oh and um, Thalia?"

"Hmm?"

"Prepare yourself for... a good mixture of pain and happiness."

"What?"

The line died, leaving Thalia confused. The camp never contacted her anymore, and now that Annabeth was with Percy, she never did either. Thalia was used to being ignored by the camp, she found it kind of unsettling that the problem included her at all. She knew that she'd never sleep with something like this on her mind, so she exited the tent quietly, leaving a note, and crept out of the camp.

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><p><strong>bumbumbumBUM.<strong>

**you know something gonna go down,**

**its all set up now ;)**

**cliffhanger... :P**


	4. Chapter 2: Returns

_-Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions.__-  
><em>_Edgar Cayce_

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><p>Thalia arrived at camp half blood just before dawn. Exhausted, she went straight to cabin one, and collapsed into a heap on the bunk that she used when she was a camper. Her lips twitched upwards tiredly at her carvings and band posters that covered the roof of the bunk, before she fell into a deep sleep.<p>

_Daughter of Zeus..._

_ Thalia shifted uneasily as the whisper woke her, opening her eyes she found herself lying on a floor of grey sand, sand that got in your mouth, leaving a gritty, bitter taste behind. Looking up, she saw that she was in a large circular room with black stone walls, and a high arched ceiling, which depicted the night sky._

_Constellations looked down on her as she examined the massive room; there were no lamps or light other than an eerie bluish glow. Rows of polished stone tables filled the room, as she looked closer, she could see millions of strings stretched out across the tables, and on one especially large black table, were what looked to be a hundred golden strings, that never seemed to end, then a thousand silver strings, some short, and some never ending, like the gold string._

_A pedestal stood in the centre of the room, and a glowing orb sat cradled on a black silk pillow, casting shadows across the walls and lighting the contours of the rock. Thalia strained to see who else was in the room, she heard the whispering grow louder as she stepped toward the orb. Soon she could pick out individual voices. She watched as silver mist come off the orb, its surface almost mirror like, she stood transfixed by it, as the surface grew transparent, and she could see something inside, swirling around in its depths._

_The orb grew clearer, and she could see faces shifting as they appeared on the surface, Annabeth, Percy, Grover, her mother, and her heart squeezed as a familiar scarred face framed by sandy blonde hair filled the orb, before it turned black, and the room darkened. The whispers intensified, almost screaming at her._

_Thalia... _

_Thalia Grace..._

_Thalia..._

_Thalia..._

"Thalia!"

"Thalia, wake up!"

Thalia jerked open her eyes, and flew out of bed, yanking out a hunting knife she always kept hidden in her clothes and dropped into a fighting stance. Her breathing grew faster and her heart beat furiously before she could understand what was happening. Annabeth leaped back in surprise before crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows.

"Really? You _sleep _with a knife? Could you be any more paranoid?" Annabeth asked rolling her eyes in affectionate exasperation before enveloping Thalia into tight a hug. Unsure for a moment, Thalia hugged her back hesitantly.

"It comes with being attacked by monsters every day." She whispered sarcastically, but uneasily into Annabeth's hair, a little more kindly she added, "Missed you."

Annabeth pulled back and grinned. "I missed you too of course. And so did Percy even though he won't admit it, and..."

She stopped, and a shadow crossed her normally bright face. She grabbed Thalia's wrist and led her outside, ignoring Thalia's complaints about the light (_it_ _burns!_). When they reached Thalia's tree, she stopped suddenly and pulled Thalia to sit next to her. Silence stretched over them.

Thalia searched Annabeth's face for whatever was bothering her; she hadn't let Annabeth pull her out here for nothing. She was also looking for any changes from the last time they met. Annabeth was seventeen now, and although she had kept her curly blonde hair and stormy grey eyes, her body had now filled out. She wasn't the bright eyed seven year old that Thalia remembered, or the awkward thirteen year who was the first to see Thalia come out of her tree. She was older than Thalia and taller by an inch, her face had turned more adult like, losing some of its roundness, and her camp necklace now had two more beads, two more years of her life that Thalia had missed. She turned away, resting her head on her hands, waiting for Annabeth to speak, covering her face with a neutral mask, but letting a little concern seep through, to comfort her friend.

"Thalia?"

"Meh?"

"Were you and Luke ever... together?"

Thalia blinked as something ripped across her chest. She let the concern seep out of her face, and be replaced with an uninterested and reproachful mask.

"What do you mean?"

Annabeth blushed, and fiddled with a piece of grass, as she spoke again.

"Were you... ever like, a couple, like Percy and me?"

"Percy and _I,_ come on kiddo, _your_ the daughter of Athena, not me."

Annabeth's eyes softened at the mention of Thalia's old nickname for her. She wasn't sidetracked by the weak attempt at a joke though, she was never sidetracked.

"Why are you avoiding the question?"

"Why do people usually avoid questions?" Thalia retorted, leaning back against the tree, she _so_ didn't need this right now.

"You won't tell me? I'm just going to imagine something worse than what it was if you don't!"

Thalia hid a grimace trying to imagine something Annabeth would come up with. She needed out of this conversation, preferably _before_ she ripped Annabeth's head off.

"Why do you want to know anyway?"

Annabeth went silent for a moment.

"Why don't you want me to know?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions?"

"Why aren't you answering any of them?" Annabeth shouted, twisting to face Thalia in frustration.

Thalia was silent. Annabeth looked away, disappointment clearly written on her face. They were so different, both in personalities and appearances, they were day and night, while Annabeth was open, Thalia was closed off, while Annabeth was free with her feelings and friends, Thalia was hardened, Annabeth planned her moves, while Thalia was impulsive. Annabeth got her happy ending, while Thalia had given up on that wish.

"Thalia?"

"mmhmm?"

"why won't you trust me?"

Thalia looked over at her with a twinge of regret, but hardened her resolve, this was going to turn into some sort of emotional heart to heart thing if she didn't stop it soon.

"Of course I trust you, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you everything that's ever happened to me."

"Not everything, just _some_ things." Annabeth looked up with her curious grey eyes. Always wanting to learn and absorb and _know_ things.

"Look kiddo, my life has been long, messed up and screwed over." Thalia said bluntly, because above all things, Thalia was always blunt, "all you need to know is the result of that life, was me, And you _know_ me."

Annabeth nodded, Thalia knew that this answer wouldn't hold for long, so she quickly changed the subject.

"So what have I missed? You and Percy married yet?"

Annabeth ignored her, "I need to tell you something."

Something in Annabeth's voice kept Thalia from making a sarcastic remark; she gave her full attention to the blonde haired girl.

"Yesterday, when Percy and I were sparring, we heard yelling from over by your tree, when we got there we found someone lying on the ground. He must have been unconscious when he fell through the barrier." She paused here, her grey eyes were wary, like Thalia was a dangerous animal that she had just poked, "Thalia, it was _Luke_."

Thalia's mind shut down. Annabeth continued, but Thalia was passed listening, the memories and everything she had tried to forget came flooding back in full force. She shook her head, but Annabeth wasn't looking.

"We took him to the big house, and put him in the recovery room, but he hasn't woken up yet, and every time Percy or I come to visit, he just keeps murmuring the same thing."

Thalia shook her head more violently, she couldn't speak, but she needed Annabeth to stop, she couldn't hear this, not now.

"Thalia, he was saying _your_ name."

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><p><strong>reviews are beautiful things :)<strong>


	5. Memory 4: Trusting Strangers

_-Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm.__-  
><em>_Euripides_

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><p>Luke Castellan was running away. Ever since he was a kid he dreamt of running away, not because he hated his mom, but because he was afraid of her, he was afraid of her fits and prophecies about all the unknown horrors in his life. And although he would never admit this, he had the feeling that his father might go back to her again if he wasn't there. And he wanted to show his father that he wasn't just another one of his kids that he could blow off, that he was worth something, and he would prove it.<p>

Luke was fourteen, with untidy blonde hair, that always seemed to fall right in his eyes. He had the kind of blue eyes that would sometimes look more silver than blue, but they were tired eyes. His build was wiry, and athletic, and his features were mischievous, almost elfish like, but there was something beneath his eyes that set off the trickster image.

Luke was, at the moment, sprinting away from a massive demonic dog.

As a son of Hermes, he could easily find paths and was quick enough to evade the monster's swipes and lunges. As a demigod, child of a Greek god and a mortal, monsters were bound to chase after him, he'd had his fair share of them over the past month that he'd been on the run, and had become good at fending them off, especially when he had acquired a demigod sword, but this one had caught him by surprise.

Branches whipped at his outstretched arms as he weaved through the dense forest he'd tried to lose the monster in, throwing rocks at it over his shoulder, he frantically scrambled up a cliff side and into a field as he broke out of the forest. He scowled as he heard the massive dog behind him clawing at his back and trying to reach him, and he lost his footing and tripped, twisting around so he could land on his back, he brought out his sword and prepared to fight off the beast.

It never came.

Luke looked up warily, just in time to see the monster slowly dissolve into sand, a gleaming bronze knife dropping from where the dog's chest had been. He jumped up, only to be knocked down again by a blur of black. Falling onto his back, he felt something land on him, and knock his breath out; he hit the ground just in time to see something leathery and winged swoop over his head, grasping claws missing his head by inches. Whoever was on top of him had just saved his life, twice now.

The girl got off of him, and whipped out a spear and a shield, which spiralled out from her bracelet. Wearing all black, and with spiky black hair, the girl looked like she had just travelled across the country on foot.

"Team up?" She yelled over her shoulder, looking down at Luke, when her eyes struck him. The electric blue eyes lined with thick black make-up were hard as ice, yet there was a spark of something vibrant and alive in them, this girl obviously enjoyed a good fight. He nodded quickly, getting up he grabbed his sword, just in time to swing it at one of the three monsters swooping and clawing at them from above, hitting one and watching it explode into dust. Now that he got a good look at the creatures, he realized that they looked like a bunch of of old ladies.

Except, these ones were flying, scaly, and trying to kill them.

He felt the girl behind him link their arms loosely so that they were back to back, and he understood immediately, and bent over so that she could roll over him, planting a kick on another of the swooping creatures. Letting go, she pointed at the closest one with her spear, and he watched in amazement as it was enveloped in spidery electric, and exploded into dust.

"The Lord of the Dead doesn't like broken oaths, girl, he wants you _dead_!" the last creature shrieked, cackling as it dove for the girl, she didn't see it coming, but Luke did, and he launched himself at her, knocking her over. As soon as they hit the ground, the girl jabbed out her spear, catching the creature just as it tried to pull up. It shrieked in agony, as it convulsed once before showering them with golden dust.

Luke relaxed chuckling, all the tension from the fight draining out of him, as he took in a deep breath. He felt the girl under him stiffen, and she tried to push him off, with little avail.

"Get off," She ordered coldly; touching him lightly with the end of her spear, Luke felt a surge of electricity go through him and he leapt off, yelping.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?"

The girl propped herself up on her elbows, smirking at him, "I did tell you to get off."

"So you thought it would be a good idea to _electrocute_ me?" Luke rubbed the tingling skin of his arm where the spear tip had touched him; he scowled down at her half-heartedly.

She tipped her head back and laughed, causing him to grin reluctantly, "You're the one who decided to _land_ on me!"

"Just returning the favour," he quipped, "that trick with the electric spear _was_ nasty, just so you know."

"I can be as nasty as I want; I just saved your ass Blondie."

He got his first clear look at the girl; she was quite pretty, but in an edgy mess-with-me-and-I'll-cut-your-balls-off kind of way. Her round, lightly freckled, heart shaped face was framed by a fringe of uneven bangs and a mop of spiky black hair, which had obviously not been washed in a while. Her eyes had on heavy eyeliner, and mascara, accenting the intense blue of her irises, but there didn't seem to be any other make up on her face, as she looked pale, and tired. She reminded Luke of a gothic pixie, with her slender delicate looking limbs, there was definitely something fey-like about her.

She looked about fifteen; she was short, and had a compact, but athletic looking build, like a long distance runner. She had slight curves, and slightly broad shoulders that complimented her frame. With her tight form fitting leather jacket, band-tee, and artfully ripped dark jeans, it was obvious that she had been wealthy before, but she didn't seem to carry the snobby air that most wealthy people around where Luke had lived always had. The girl raised an eyebrow at him, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly. She walked over to a tree and pulling out a worn looking back pack from under its roots.

"Are you gonna say something? or just you know, stand there staring at me…" She asked, as she looked back at him, still smirking.

"I was not _staring_," he said with a mock defensive tone, "I was _assessing_, just in case you feel the need to attack me again, I want to know what I'm up against."

"And what did you find in your 'assessing', other than my ass?" the raven haired girl asked putting her hands on her hips and giving him the raised eyebrow again.

"Eh, I could take you, no problem."

The girl's eyes glinted, "prove it."

"Fine, no weapons, just plain old first one pinned loses." He grinned, wrestling a hot girl? _This _was his idea of a good time.

The spiky haired girl sighed theatrically, but agreed and put down her spear, as Luke put away his sword. Luke dropped into the ready stance he learned in PE class, it was meant for volleyball; but he figured it probably looked good. The girl just stood there and crossed her arms defiantly, giving him a sarcastic smile. Luke made a darting grab for her arm, but she moved too quickly, and kicked him in the back of the leg. Collapsing onto one knee heavily he grunted as he hit the ground.

He heard the girl coming up behind him, and, twisting around, he grabbed the foot that was coming for the back of his head in a quick nimble movement, and pulled it so that the girl swung around and landed on her backside. Not wasting a second, she twisted her foot out of his grasp and jumped up, and sweaty and panting, circling each other with half smiles pasted on both their faces, they kicked, punched, flipped, slid and danced around each other, trying to gain the upper hand.

Finally the girl made a mistake, over extending on one kick, she stumbled off balance, and Luke lunged at her, enclosing her in the circle of his arms, and effectively knocking them both over, turning over during the fall so that he absorbed the impact from the ground. He then quickly flipped over so that he had the girl pinned to the dirt. She was breathing heavily, her stomach and chest rising and falling with every breath, easily distracting him momentarily, before he smirked down at her. She scowled, which quickly turned into a sneer, before lifting her head from the ground slightly as she looked straight into his eyes and said;

"It wasn't the spear that was electric_." _

She closed her eyes briefly, and when they opened again, they were sparking with energy, and before Luke could move, an electric current ran through her, up her arms and into Luke, shocking him off of her. He landed about four feet away, sapped of energy; he looked up, dazed, from the singed and flattened grass he was now laying on. The girl had lost the sarcastic smile and amused expression. Her face had hardened into a grim expression, and she looked down on him with a mixture of regret, reluctance and something that Luke couldn't quite identify peeking out through her eyes

"My name is Thalia. I'm the only daughter of Zeus, the result of a broken oath." The girl told him in a quiet unwavering voice.

Daughter of Zeus? She was way worse off than he was then, he suddenly felt the need to give this stranger some reassurance. Any reassurance. He offered her a sympathetic smile.

"Don't _feel bad_ for me, I don't _want or need_ your damn sympathy!" she yelled, her eyes flashed dangerously, her hands had sparks flickering around them and the clouds rumbled angrily in the distance, coming in closer and faster by the second.

Luke just looked at her, and slowly got up, it had started to rain, the clouds had turned a sorrowful gray and swirled around them flashing with lightning. The wind had picked up and blew his hair out of his eyes as he looked at the angry girl before him.

"I wasn't giving you sympathy, I was giving you _empathy_," he informed her, his eyes never leaving hers, "we're both in the same boat, maybe… it wasn't a coincidence that we met."

Thalia looked at him; shock the dominant emotion on her face, before she shielded her face with the grim expression again. Eventually, the rain began to die down, and the clouds opened to reveal the sun again, the wind blew one more gust before going away. Suspicion crossed Thalia's face, her eyes narrowed as she spoke.

"Are you… do you want to come with me?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"If that's okay…?"

Thalia seemed to think about it seriously for a minute or two before answering, "If you snore, I stab you in your sleep, got it?"

"Got it."

Luke grinned, a grin that she returned, albeit a tad warily, and then they were traveling partners, and perhaps, maybe even starting something more.

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><p><strong>just in case you guys are confused, <strong>

**the plot jumps from her current life, **

**into her memories,**

**so check the chapter bar to see whether your in a chapter or a memory :)**

**AND SO THE DYNAMIC DUO MEETS!**

**whatya think?**

**i enjoyed it ;)**

**review or face my wrath...**


	6. Chapter 3: Visits and Regrets

_-Sorrows gather around great souls as storms do around mountains; but, like them, they break the storm and purify the air of the plain beneath them-__  
><em>_Jean Paul_

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><p>"Thalia?"<p>

"_Thalia_!"

Annabeth called Thalia's name over and over, with no response from the other girl. She was beginning to worry, Thalia just sat beside her looking out over the camp as if lost in thought, her face uninterested, but there was something missing in her eyes. Annabeth had known Thalia since she was a kid, but could never understand how her mind worked, only Luke had ever seemed be able to understand her.

Thalia's eyes had changed over the years, even when nothing else about her had. The rebellious, mischievous gleam in her eyes along with the spark of electricity that had been there during their time on the run had turned into a gleam of anger behind every smile or wink after she came out of the tree. After the battle of Manhattan, there was emptiness, the spark in Thalia's eye was weak, and there was none of the emotion behind the blue that Annabeth had looked up to for so many years.

Now, Annabeth watched as something rekindled in her friend's eyes, the spark had returned, and the emotion behind them was strong, but, something Annabeth hadn't seen before, a mixture of determination, anger, pain, regret and something that she couldn't _quite_ name. Thalia turned to her, and Annabeth winced under the intensity of her glare,

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I-"

"What? Am I supposed to be happy he's back? Did you think I'd go weak in the knees? Start crying maybe?"

"No, I-"

"Why do you think I even _want_ him back in my life!"

"Thalia-"

"Why should I care if he's back? Why should I care if he rots down in hades for the rest of his shitty dead life!"

Annabeth was shocked, she knew Thalia would be angry, but she didn't think she would be this _murderous_. Even though she knew Thalia would never hurt her, she wasn't eager to continue on such a dangerous subject with the easily angered daughter of Zeus. There was a break in the conversation, after a few minutes though, Annabeth decided to speak up.

"Thalia?"

Thalia was silent.

"Thalia?"

"What do you want from me?" her voice was different this time, softer, it broke on the last word.

"I just want you to come to a meeting, then we can talk about Luke."

"What meeting?"

"Theres a new camper, he's undetermined, but he's much older than twelve, he looks familiar, I just can't place where I know him from. Will you help us?"

The fifteen year old looked down, every now and then a stray spark would dance across her spiked hair, or across the arm of her leather jacket.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

...

Half an hour later, the camp counsellors were all seated in the big house, the meeting room had been moved from the ping-pong table in the basement, to a large room that looked like the inside of a barn. There was a large round table in the centre, with plush seats around it. Thalia was seated in between Annabeth and Percy awkwardly leaning back into her chair to avoid getting hit by any blown kisses or winks from between the two.

After a few minutes of chatting, Chiron entered the room, in his centaur form towering above the table, and it occupants. He gave Thalia a wink, accompanied with a sad smile, which Annabeth saw that she returned, albiet a tad more sarcastically than the centaur had. She focused on Chiron, who after clearing his throat, gave them all a warm smile and began.

"As you all know, when the Battle of Manhattan ended, Percy was granted the wish that all demigod's be claimed by their parents at age twelve. And they have kept that promise, with only one exception."

Murmur of surprise swept over the table, Annabeth glanced at Percy, who gave her a bewildered shrug and then to Thalia, who sat slumped in her seat, looking at the ceiling with a comically bored look on her face. Her attention was brought to a demigod beside Chiron. The demigod teen was dark haired, dressed in neat, dull clothes, his face was one you forget while you look at it, except for his eyes, his silvery blue eyes that captured hers instantly, making her feel safe, comfortable, and sleepy... her eyelids drooped heavily as his eyes burned into hers hypnotically.

He flashed her an endearing smile before Chiron cleared his throat, clearing her head. The demigod looked up at him resentfully before crossing his arms and looking thoroughly sulky.

"Ben is 18, well past the time when demigods are brought to camp and claimed, he doesn't resemble any of the gods or goddesses, which is troubling. I called this meeting to-"

"Hey Thalia," the boy smirked, almost as if there were a joke that everyone but himself were missing out on, "You haven't changed much."

Annabeth followed his gaze to Thalia in confusion, they knew each other? What she saw on Thalia's face left her absolutely dumbfounded though; humiliation, anger and _fear_ were flashing in the punk's electric blue eyes, fear that she didn't have when she fought Luke, fear that she didn't have even when she faced the army of monsters that killed her. The Thalia _she _knew wasn't afraid of anything, that Thalia stood solid while everything else crumbled, she was sarcastic, she was closed off, she was a pain in the ass, but she was _never_ afraid. To her credit though, she recovered quickly, her face turned to a grim expression.

"Hey Ben."

Ben grinned, but there was something off about the smile, something mocking and sadistic and _wrong_ about it as he looked down at Thalia, even as his face seemed polite and appealing. Suddenly, Thalia jerked out of her seat and marched determinedly towards the door, back stiff, and fists clenched. Startled, no one stopped him as Ben raced after her and cut her off. Stumbling back as he stepped in front of her, Thalia snarled and tried to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wall roughly.

Thalia didn't move. She looked away from Ben as if just seeing him there caused her pain. He leaned forward and muttered something in her ear, a predator's smile on his face as she closed her eyes, and nodded gravely.

Ben looked back towards the table raising an eyebrow, as if enjoying the attention that he was getting, before turning his attention back to the girl he was pinning to the wall, Thalia again looked away, but made no move to get free.

Ben laughed, and reached out to touch her cheek, then her shoulder, tracing the length of her arm with his fingers. Anger and humiliation burned across Thalia's face as her gaze darted back to glare at him murderously, with a shout she shoved her hand into his chest, her whole fist crackling with lightning. Ben flew against the opposite wall, and crumpled in a heap to the floor trails of energy flitting over his body.

Then Thalia was gone.

Ben stood up painfully, and turned to face the table with the look of an injured animal, and for a split second, Annabeth wondered if he was truly insane, but that thought went out of her head as she caught his eyes, and was suddenly drained of energy. Chiron stuttered for a minute, but managed to choke out that the meeting was closed. Ignoring Percy's shout of protest, Annabeth ran from the room, after her friend.

"Thalia!"

She caught up to her about five minutes later. Thalia stood shivering beside her tree, her face red but blank. Annabeth grabbed the shorter, spiky haired girl into a bone crushing hug, burying her face into Thalia's shoulder. Thalia didn't hug her back, but Annabeth didn't care, as long as she didn't push her off, it meant the hug was welcome. A tear ran down Thalia's cheek, even though her face remained emotionless.

Annabeth sat down with her, still holding the other girl in a hug, because she didn't know what else to do, Thalia had only cried once before, at least once in front of her. Thalia reached up to clutch Annabeth's jacket, but no more tears escaped her. Annabeth didn't speak, like always with Thalia, she had been taken by surprise, she didn't know what to do or what to say, because as much as she loved her friend, she didn't understand her, Thalia wouldn't let her.

Thalia wiped her eyes in disgust, she scowled at the mascara smudges on her hands as if she could burn them off with the heat of her gaze.

"It's okay to cry sometimes Thalia."

"Crying doesn't solve anything; it just messes up my eyeliner."

"Well, maybe if you didn't wear so much..." Annabeth joked weakly, giving her friend a sad smile, "why were you crying Thalia?"

Thalia shrugged, but looked up at her indignantly, "One tear doesn't count as crying."

"Thalia, why won't you tell me anything?"

There was silence. Thalia looked away, seeming to mull something over, Annabeth waited, as the seconds became minutes, she began to get frustrated, then Thalia spoke.

"Stay away from Ben, okay?"

"What?"

"Just... stay away from him." Thalia fixed her with one of her glares, but this time, it wasn't angry, but more like a warning, Annabeth found herself believing her.

"Okay."

After a long pause, Thalia spoke again.

"I want to... I'm ready to see him now."

"Who?"

"Luke."

"Now?"

"yep."

"Alright..."

They walked back to the big house. Everyone had cleared out, leaving them to walk alone. The silence between the two was suffocating. Annabeth had no idea what changed Thalia's mind, or what connection she had with Ben, or even how deep the connection she had with Luke was, and she was anxious about leaving Thalia alone in a room with Luke.

"Annabeth?"

"hmm?"

"Can you come in with me?"

"Why?"

"I'm going to try something, and I need your help," Thalia bit her lip, she seemed to stare past Annabeth as she spoke softly, "it could bring him back."

Annabeth gave her a wary look, she wasn't sure what was going on with Thalia, she was almost fed up with her secrets; the daughter of Athena hated being kept from knowledge of any kind. She opened the door, and stepped inside, with Thalia in tow. Luke was lying on the hospitable bed, his eyes were bruised and sunken, his lips were chapped, and his complexion was pale, even so he managed to look like an angel. A fallen angel.

Annabeth pulled up a chair on one side while Thalia walked slowly around to the other. Luke's head turned toward Thalia but didn't he open his eyes or move passed that. Thalia looked up at Annabeth with an eyebrow raised and an unreadable expression plastered on her face, Annabeth shrugged.

"I'm going to bring him back... and I need your help." Thalia said after a few minutes.

Annabeth was surprised, the tone of Thalia's voice was off, as if she was struggling to keep it neutral.

"What do you need me to do?"

Thalia took a deep breath before answering.

"I'm going to electrocute him," she said simply, quickly elaborating after seeing the look on Annabeth's face, "it won't hurt him, I mean, if I do it right, it'll just remind him of..."

Thalia trailed off looking down as a light blush crossed her face, Annabeth was again reminded of the other girl's secrets, but Thalia hurried on before she could say anything.

"If you smell burning skin, yell. If you see him move, yell. if I move my hand anywhere but from right here-" she put her hand on his chest, right over his heart "-yell. _Do not touch me_."

"Okay."

"You sure you want him back?"

"Don't you?"

"I don't know."

Thalia closed her eyes. Taking deep breaths, she bowed her head in concentration. A spark of electricity tentatively began making its way down her arm, hesitating at her hand, before skittering over onto Luke's chest, another followed, then another, until there was a steady stream of electricity working into Luke. Luke turned his head, and groaned, but not from pain. Thalia tipped her head back and clenched the rail of the bed in her other hand. Annabeth felt like an intruder in this intimate moment, watching Luke respond to each shock with eagerness, and Thalia clutching the rail as if to stop herself from moving.

Finally Luke's eyes opened, the sapphire blue met electric blue and some unspoken conversation ensued, as Annabeth watched Thalia's face grow softer, before hardening again. Luke's face looked pained for a minute before he broke into a smile.

"Didn't that bring back memories?"

And suddenly it was like Luke never left, and it was just the three of them, a family.

"Your scar is gone." Thalia told him, taking one of his wrists and pulling his hand up to his face to feel the fresh skin. He shrugged.

"I know."

Thalia took a step back, biting her lip, her expression unreadable. Luke's eyes followed her movement, and seemed to understand some hidden meaning behind it. Annabeth was again struck by how out of place she felt, like an outsider. That made her angry for a moment, but she brushed off the feeling, it wasn't logical to be jealous of Thalia. Luke gave Thalia a lopsided smile, but again, there was something behind the smile that Thalia understood and she didn't.

"What did it remind you of?" He asked softly, as if already knowing what the answer was.

"Regrets."

And with that harshly spoken last word, Thalia walked out of the room without a back ward glance, leaving Luke and Annabeth behind.

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><p><strong>OKAY!<strong>

**theres another one done ;)**

**tell me what you think so far perhaps?**

**thank you to the review-ers,**

**I did a little happy dance when i saw your reviews, i won't lie :3**

**NEXT CHAPTER UP SOON ;)**


	7. Chapter 4: Thorns

_-something wicked this way comes-_

_Macbeth_

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><p>Thalia sat down on the dock, and pushed out her confused mind to simpler things, the feel of the wind and the rain and the energy in the air. Slowly she began to release her hold on the world, watching as she made the clouds jumble together, and listening to the wind pick up speed, making the waves crash against the coast. She pushed the clouds together, feeling how they got heavier with rain, and then released it, making a sun shower. A rainbow came out, and she half-smiled at the colourful mirage.<p>

She leaned her head on her hand, drawing on the rough wood of the dock with her finger, she couldn't bring herself to let lightning cross the sky, it would just remind her of what she had done to revive Luke. She flushed as she remembered the last time the tingling electricity had been shared with Luke. She hadn't done it on purpose that time, it had just happened. Luke had been her confidante, when she had joined the hunters, it was because she knew if he asked her to join him again, she would have, and it scared her that he had that much power over her. She was angry at him, but she knew him, knew why he abandoned the camp, and wasn't surprised when Annabeth told her.

She _had_ hoped things would be different though, a fact that she now bitterly cursed herself for, because it made it all so much worse, but she always knew, because they were so alike. But, now with him being reborn, for once, she didn't know what he had planned, and that scared her. The fact that he was constantly in her thoughts, the way his face looked when she was electrifying him, the memories of his hands on her face, her stomach, her arms, memories of whispered conversations and stolen moments in the dark after Annabeth had gone to sleep, she couldn't get them to stop, and that scared her too.

Thalia turned her mind away from all that angrily, mentally chiding herself for thinking about it, and headed back to her cabin, it was getting dark. She hardened her face into the mask she had been using since she was nine years old. Before she reached the cabin however, she saw a shadow pass through the doorway. She sprinted towards the cabin, only to see Ben stooped over and going through her bags. She froze.

"_What the hell are you doing?"_ she yelled, putting as much ice into her voice as she could, she was surprised and a little bit freaked out to see Ben, but like hell was she going to let him know that, again.

"Looking for something."

"Get _out!_"

Ben turned towards her calmly, and the smug smarmy look on his face made her want to punch him. He held up a, orb, about the size of a marble. Thalia's blood ran cold. The sphere was an electric blue, with swirls of black inside swimming around, an eerie silver glow emanated from it, "Found it."

"Give that to me." Now she was on the defensive, the only objective on her mind was to get the orb back.

"No, this is one of my favourite games," he took a few steps towards her grinning sadistically, "the hunters are here by the way.'

"So?" Thalia started to reach for the marble, "Why would I care? I have nothing to hide from them."

"Except this..." Ben said, holding out the orb, turning it around to catch the light. "And that is why... I'm here to show them, add more flavour to the game."

"You son of a-"

"Don't worry," he cut her off," you won't have to suffer through this."

"No," Thalia started to back up, she reached out her hand willing the electricity to funnel through her, but she couldn't focus, her eyelids drooped, and she struggled to keep them open, "don't you dare Ben... don't be a coward."

"Am I really the coward here?" the last thing she saw was the son of Morpheus's face tilted slightly to the side, as if pondering this question that hung in the air between them, "Am I?"

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><p><strong>muahaha... fillercliffhanger chapters FTW!**

**i can't wait to get to the real story line :) **

**its gonna be fun...**

**thank you for the reviews,**

**they make me happier than raspberry gelato :3**

**review question : what do you think of Ben? is he a character you would like to see more of? **

**FILL ME IN PEOPLE ;)**

**lovelovelove 3**

**Miss. Alaneous :)**


	8. Memory 5: Stories Told and Untold

_-There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you-_

_Maya Angelou_

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><p>Thalia trudged along behind Luke. When you got too tired to walk, but had to keep going, you trudged. Thalia hated trudging. She also hated following Luke, it wasn't her nature to be the follower, but she was too tired to run ahead of him, like she had done before.<p>

"You know, we could stop and rest," Luke called over his shoulder, grinning down at her, "we need to make camp anyway, it's getting dark."

Thalia scowled, but she was glad he had suggested it; she needed to rest, she just didn't want to be the one to say anything.

"Fine," she replied decisively, "we'll reach the top of this hill, and set up camp."

"If by 'camp' you mean the two blankets we brought, then sure." He smirked back at her.

She flashed him a wry smile and then promptly ran ahead of him.

Thalia watched as Luke tried to set fire to the small pile of leaves they had made. Repeatedly he struck a match with quick steady fingers, and lowered gently into the brush, but only smoke would come out of it. Finally he threw down the matches in frustration, his lips pursed and his hands running through his hair in frustration. Thalia smirked as she saw a scowl appear on Luke's face.

"What are you laughing at?" He grumbled, but she knew he wasn't too put out by it, "No fire means we freeze tonight, unless you want to snuggle to keep warm."

"Tempting," Thalia laughed, and his mouth twitched up into a smile, "if we have to resort to that, I call being big spoon."

"I'm twice as big as you!"

"But you have a fragile disposition," She teased, "I think we both know that I'm more qualified for big spoon."

"Qualified? _Qualified_?" Luke spluttered, "I freaking _ooze_ qualification! Unqualified my ass..."

"See?" She shrugged, "your getting all worked up, and will probably break down soon and need me to comfort you, which is my duty as big spoon."

"You know what?" Luke said, mocking a hurt tone, "I'm taking your snuggling privileges, you can just freeze then."

"Alright, alright, stand back," she warned, cracking her knuckles and winking at him, "or if you want to get burned, you could ignore me."

"What are you- _augh!"_ he yelped as a bolt of lightning leapt from her hand, it wasn't hard for her now, she knew how to look for the static in the air, and funnel it through her body and out her hand. The brush immediately caught fire, washing them both with warmth. Thalia leaned back against a gnarled tree stump she was using as a pillow, and grinned at Luke, who looked at her wildly, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Okay, so being Zeus's kid has some advantages," he said, unthinkingly, as he gave her a lopsided smile, which dropped as he saw her reproachful expression.

He looked down sheepishly, and threw her a granola bar from his pack. She repented, and smiled tentatively, unwrapping the snack, and taking a bite. An awkward silence fell over the camp.

"So what's your story?" Luke crossed his arms and leaned forward as he rested them on his knees. Looking over at her from the fire he elaborated, "You don't have to tell me, but I'm betting there's a good one, since you're a demigod, _and_ big three material."

Thalia pursed her lips; did she want to tell this guy she'd known for barely a week her 'story'? She sighed, and glanced up at him.

"I ran away because... "She shrugged, pushing thoughts of Jason out of her mind, "well, what's usually the reason kids run away?"

Luke looked like he was contemplating this, before he shifted closer to her reaching for a stick that he started to play with.

"My dad, Hermes, somehow wound up making my mom go crazy. I don't know the details," he started, staring into the fire. "Anyway, she would have these fits, and her eyes would go green, and she'd start talking about the future. Used to scare the crap outta me when I was little, but I got used to it."

Thalia shuddered, she edged closer and bumped shoulders with him, trying to give him a reassuring smile, uncertain how exactly to deal with his confession. She wasn't very good at comforting people.

"What did she say about the future?" Thalia asked hesitantly, looking over at him as he blew the hair out of his eyes, she liked how it always seemed to always fall right in his way.

"Oh, all the standard horror stuff_" _he said casually, waving it off. She punched him in the arm. "ow, i dunno, she was never, completely… coherent, during her attacks. Mostly she just shook me a lot and groaned nonsense."

"That's not right for your father to leave you with her," Thalia told him, putting her hand on his knee, "he should have come back."

"But he didn't."

"Then its his loss I guess," She grinned at him, "who needs the gods anyways?"

He returned her smile gratefully. A glint appeared in Thalia's eye, as an idea struck her,and ignoring the confused face of Luke, she reached into her belt and pulled out one of her hunting knives. Alarm crossed Luke's face as he looked from the knife to her. She turned to face him, handing him the knife.

"You can have it, your sword won't always be enough, and I have two more, and my spear, a shield, and my hidden daggers."

"Paranoid much?"

"I call it, 'Prepared'"

Thalia grinned and rolled her eyes, and turned back the fire, Luke didn't know it, but this was first gift Thalia had ever given to anyone besides Jason.

"I have an idea," Luke began, his hands drumming on his legs, "Hold out your hand."

Thalia was hesitant for a moment, and then she reached out her hand, holding it palm up for Luke. He took it and pressed the knife into it, drawing the smallest amount of blood. It stung, and Thalia had to stifle a gasp of surprise and pain, her eyes widening as she looked up at Luke, "What the hell are you doing?"

He grinned at her, and pressed the knife into his own hand, drawing blood, and pressed their two hands together. A spark of electricity connected the two palms, surprising them both.

"I'm pretty sure this is how diseases are spread." Thalia stated, looking pointedly at their joined bleeding hands.

"Oh shut up, now you have to promise something," Luke said, grinning, before his grin dropped into an earnest expression, "I promise… that I'll never hurt you."

Thalia knew he couldn't keep that promise, but something inside her was beginning to open again, something she hadn't known was closed. Luke made her feel, happy again, lighter. She thought of something to promise.

"I promise I'll never leave you."

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><p><strong>AWWWW!<strong>

**touching moment...**

**i hope :$**

**okay, so i figured i needed a few happy thuke filled chapters before i got into the**

**big scary plot of doom so i hope you all enjoy the few that i do pop out, **

**cause i doubt there will be many...**

**REVIEW :3**

**^i really, really want to hear what you have to say, even if you were just reading for fun, it makes my day a little better with every comment :)**

**LOVE 3**

**miss. alaneous :)**


	9. Chapter 5: Spilled Memories

_-All violations of essential privacy are brutalizing-_

_Katherine Fullerton Gerould_

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><p>Percy was bored. He was idly spinning in his chair, trying to stay awake while Annabeth argued with a hunter about when they would have their monthly capture the flag game. He leaned his face on his hands, letting out a sigh of impatience. His eyes wandered the room aimlessly, glancing ever so often at his girlfriend. Hey, it was hard to focus when she looked that cute alright? Lost in his thoughts, he jumped as the door of the big house swung open, and Ben marched in.<p>

Percy raised an eyebrow at Annabeth, who gave him a shrug. Percy was confused by the older demigod, whatever connection he had with Thalia was obviously making her uncomfortable, but Ben seemed normal enough to him, cool, even.

Ben sauntered into the room casually, with one of his hands in his pockets. He took a seat at the end of the table, and obnoxiously put his muddy feet up on the table, nobody moved to stop him, too shocked at his appearance. Slowly, he took his hand out of his pocket, bringing out an orb the size of a man's fist. The rooms gaze shifted to stare at the orb, it was beautiful, the electric blue mixing with the swirls of black, making it almost hypnotizing, but he was still confused as to what it was.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" Ben smile quirked up at their expressions, which ranged from utterly bewildered to utterly scandalized, "the hunters should know."

"How should we know?" a blonde girl with a distinct australian accent stepped forward, scowling "Where's the lieutenant?"

He waved off the question, raising an eyebrow insolently as the hunters gave him a dubious look

"Where is Thalia?" Annabeth asked suspiciously, as she stood up, Percy made a move to stop her, grabbing her arm, but Ben just sighed heavily as if he didn't notice.

"Do you remember, hunters, when you traveled into the labyrinth? You got lost, and Thalia was separated from you in a cave in. You eventually found her outside the labyrinth, and like the stupid, trusting little girls you are, you didn't ask her where she had been, or how she got out."

Ben stopped a moment, looking around at all of them, letting them take it in, a rather dangerous glint of mockery in his eye. Percy was confused, he knew Thalia was secretive, but he didn't think she would ever do something to hurt them. Then again, why _was_ she so secretive, what could she possibly have to hide? Was their trust in Thalia misplaced? Percy shook these thoughts from his head, Thalia was their friend, and Percy _always_ trusted his friends.

"She was trapped in Mnemosyne's cave. The Goddess sampled her memory, much to Thalia's displeasure, and created an orb full of Thalia's most treasured memories" Ben drawled out _treasured_ like it was a diseased word, rolling his eyes as he continued, "Some of you are in these memories, most of you aren't. But that doesn't really matter to me either way."

Percy looked worriedly at Annabeth, whose face looked torn between curiosity and a horror. She bit her lip, looking like she was about to say something, but before either of them could do anything, the orb crashed on the floor, washing the room in mist, before Thalia's memories swept into the room.

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><p><strong>ew. <strong>

**filler chapters suck.**

**I dont really know what Ben's motives are.**

**he'll have to tell me soon though, because he's getting hard to write :$**

**OK! review and you will be my favourite ;)**


	10. Memory 6: Trust in General

_-The best way to find out if you can trust somebody, is to trust them-_

_Ernest Hemingway_

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><p>Thalia backed up steadily, her hunting knives clutched tightly in each hand, Luke advanced with his sword, sweat beaded on his forehead, but he grinned at her all the same. It had been two years since Thalia had given Luke her knife, two years since they had made the blood promises, and since then two had become inseparable, they depended on each other. Luke was fifteen now, and Thalia was fourteen, but they both looked older, acted older, were older, or at least, <em>they<em> thought they were.

Thalia batted away Luke's sword with the swipe of a knife, dropping down as he swung over her head, she spun on her heel, kicking out his legs from under him, before she pointed her knife at his neck, and grinned smugly.

"Beatcha' again," She sang, helped him up and watched half amused and half exasperated as he took the ready stance yet again.

"One more time, last one I promise."

Thalia sighed dramatically and dropped into the stance, winking at him. Luke quirked an eyebrow, before charging at her full tilt. In one deft move, Luke flipped one her knives out of her hand, they sparred for the next five minutes, until Thalia lost balance on a block. Seeing an opportunity, Luke grabbed her wrist at the same time she grabbed his arm for balance, and they stumbled, pinning her between Luke and a tree.

The bark bit into her back harshly as they both struggled to break the hold each other had. Luke pressed on a point on her wrist, making her drop her knife. She glared at him, silently telling him that she wasn't done, but Luke didn't seem interested in sparring anymore.

He was just looking at her, but his eyes were darker, a deep oceanic blue instead of his usual sky blue. She bit down down hard on her lip as her heart leapt up into her throat, blocking her air. Suddenly he was much closer, leaning into her, her head spinning from his intoxicating breath on her face, she tried backing up, pressing herself further into the tree. He dropped her wrist and put his hand on the bark beside her head, leaning closer, his darkened eyes sliding shut. Panicking, she groped on her belt trying to find the small dagger she kept there. Their faces were millimetres apart, she could barely think properly anymore; she fumbled with the dagger before quickly placing the flat side against his neck.

Startled by the cool metal's touch, Luke jumped, glancing from the flashing silver to Thalia's flushed face, a flash of something painful flew across his face before he covered it with a smile, which didn't reach his eyes. Thalia released her abused lip, she knew that she had hurt him, she flashed him an apologetic look.

"I win." She whispered; she dropped her eyes as a powerful silence dropped between them. She searched for something to say, anything to make this better, but her sarcasm and humor had run dry. She turned away extricating herself from his arms as she walked unsteadily to the fire.

"Thalia?"

She turned around his carefully, Luke was still in the position she had left him in, but his hands were clenched into fists. In her years with Luke, she learned that he expressed what he was feeling through his hands.

"You let your guard down, if you do that in a fight, you die. I was just trying to keep it real." Thalia said grimly, noting how Luke's jaw clenched, "you can't trust anyone."

"You can't trust _me_?" Luke asked looking up, he stepped closer, uncrossing his arms, "If I was gonna stick a knife in your back, I would've done it a long time ago!"

"I know-"

"Haven't I earned a little trust?" He continued angrily, cutting her off, running a hand through his hair in exasperation, "I trust _you_."

"Why would you do that?" She retorted, bristling at his anger, "Give me one good reason why you would trust me."

Luke just looked at her simmering with fury, his nails began to draw blood from how hard he was clenching them. She sighed, and ripped a strip of cloth from one of the woolen blankets. He watched her as she took his hands and bound them.

"This," he said quietly, gesturing at his bound hands, "is why I trust you."

Thalia froze, she glanced up and met his gaze, reading his eyes and seeing the trust he had for her in them. She exhaled, running a thin-fingered hand over her face before meeting his eyes again.

"Fine, I trust you."

Luke raised an eyebrow challengingly, and she scowled, she did _not_ back down from challenges.

"My last name is Grace."

Luke smiled at her, a real smile, and she hesitantly returned it, relaxing into him as he pulled her to his chest.

Later, night saw them sitting by the fire watching it flicker, engulfing them with its light and warmth.

Luke's hands were tapping idly on his legs, "Am I only getting a last name?" He teased, but Thalia knew that he was serious about wanting to know more.

She was silent for a while, collecting her thoughts, while watching the fire.

"I was born fourteen or so years ago, I don't know the name of the hospital, so don't ask me," she flipped a piece of onyx hair out of her face before continuing, "my mother was a teenage starlet, not a huge celebrity, but we still were pretty well off."

"I don't really remember the early years, but I remember she wasn't very... caring, or loving or any of that shit, she hired a nanny and that was the end of her involvement with me."

Thalia stopped, she wasn't sure she wanted to continue talking about her past when she was trying to forget it; she continued very quietly, almost a whisper.

"Around the time I turned six, she decided that I was the reason that she couldn't get on the A-list, and thats I learned how to take a hit."

She stopped again, resting her head on her knees; Luke threw an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her closer to him. She shot him a grateful look before continuing.

"I grew up avoiding my mother and her boyfriends, because whenever we did meet, it would end up with me yelling and her throwing bottles at my head," she smiled dryly, "I used to imagine my dad as some sort of… I don't know… some sort of normal, not important, regular-Joe kinda guy who would one day come and take me away from there."

Luke leaned back onto a tree behind them, pulling her with him, and she didn't resist. It felt weird, opening up to someone, and she strangely felt safe, and comforted, she had never let anyone in this far, never even _had_ anyone to let in this far, but even Luke wouldn't get far enough for her tell him about Jason.

"It's hard to swallow the fact that my dad, instead of my regular Joe, was the king of the effing gods… at least regular Joe dad had the excuse of not knowing I exist, or, or not being able to get to me because of a manager or bodyguard or something, my real dad has no excuses, for _anything_. He just didn't care enough to come and take care of his bastard kids."

She realized she was talking too loudly, and had accidently let slip that there was more than one kid, but Luke didn't seem to have noticed. She took a deep breath through her nose; the air was full of Luke's smell, a mixture of sweat, rust and the cheap soap they used to clean their clothes in the rivers with, it was strangely intoxicating.

"I was always told I looked like her, which pissed me off," she scowled, "she would always get angry when anyone mentioned that I must've had my dad's hair and eyes, or when I mentioned the monsters I saw, so eventually I stopped talking. My Dad came back once, and screwed everything over, before leaving us even more messed up. So I ran away, and I was on the run for a month or two before I found you."

"Your dad's a jackass" Luke said through his clenched teeth.

"Yup."

"He just sat and watched as you..." Luke trailed off angrily.

"The gods don't have time for us, we're just their screw ups."

"we're not-"

"I know."

They sat quietly after that, illuminated by moonlight and fire, contrasting silver and gold light that played with the shadows of the night, casting capes of darkness behind rocks and trees. The wind called faintly through the night, causing leaves to run across the ground, and the clouds to slide across the blanket of the sky, colliding into each other. The night sky was lit with the silver pinpricks, lighting up the darkness. The trees were witness to them falling asleep, clutching each other, because there was no one else that mattered, no one else that cared.

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><p><strong>I love thuke 3<strong>

**they're just so, so... AMAZING.**

**reviews are amazing, CC is taken into serious consideration :)**


	11. Chapter 6: Enlightened

_-Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm-__  
><em>_Idries Shah_

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><p>Annabeth awoke with a start, blinking against the bright lights of the barn, propping herself up on her elbows she looked around. Percy gave a strangled gasp and shot up into a sitting position, hitting his head on the table, falling back swearing to himself and clutching his forehead. Annabeth giggled, winking at him when he looked over at her scowling.<p>

Then the memories hit her again, bouncing around the inside of her head angrily. Guilt settled in the pit of her stomach, and she groaned as she realized that they had just watched all of Thalia's most important, not to mention private, memories. She now knew all of Thalia's secrets, and found herself trying to forget them.

She stood up, trying to get heart-wrenching images of a tiny six year old Thalia huddled in a closet, or burning memories of Thalia's lips on Luke's, or any memory that wasn't her own, cleared from of her mind. She looked over as the hunters got to their feet, Percy stood up, still rubbing the sore spot on his head. Ben was nowhere to be seen, she craned her neck trying to see out the window, to check if he had run out of the room, but he was gone.

She sighed heavily and touched Percy's shoulder reassuringly, whether reassuring for her or for him she wasn't positive, she wobbled to her feet and took a few steps to the door, before she heard the sound of breaking glass. Looking down, she realized that she was standing on the broken shards of Thalia's memory orb. She collected the tiny fragments and pooled them in her palms, unsure of what to do with them. She looked around the room desperately, _please someone know what to do!_

Ben was gone.

The dark haired demigod was nowhere to be seen, he must have left while everyone was still disoriented, well, more disoriented.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried, running over to him and grabbing his arm, "We need to find Thalia, like, right now!"

"Right, okay," Percy said breathlessly, he glanced around the room, "um, do any of you know where Thalia is?"

The hunters looked at him in disgust, sniffing loudly and derisively before turning and gathering together to whisper amongst themselves.

"Guess I should've seen that coming," Percy muttered wearily, as he ran a hand through his dark hair, he turned his gaze back to Annabeth, "well, um, I guess we should check all the places Thalia hangs out, you know? I'll check her tree, and you can um, check her cabin, then we'll meet up at the Big house to tell Chiron."

"Should we tell her?" Annabeth asked him, she already had a few theories on how her friend would react, and none of them were good, "Maybe she's got enough to deal with, I mean, Luke's back, and then there's that whole Ben issue, and she has to take care of the hunters, and whatever Artemis is doing, should we add to that?"

"Hey, Thalia is one of the strongest people I know, I know that I would want to know if someone had raped my memories like that, and I know she can handle it," Percy said gently but firmly, taking Annabeth by the shoulders so she had to look at him, "besides, she's definitely had worse."

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she paused to kiss him on the cheek, then walked out of the room determinedly. She would find Thalia, and then they would both kill Ben.

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><p><strong>i hate filler chapters.<strong>

**really.**

**they're no fun to write :(**

**review, and maybe tell me what you want to see as a memory ;)**


	12. Memory 7: Offers and Rejections

_-It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are-_

_ Roy Disney_

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><p>A dozen girls ranging from nine to sixteen appeared at the edge of Thalia and Luke's camp. They came so quickly and quietly that it took Luke a minute to notice them. then of course, he did.<p>

Thalia jumped up from cleaning her knives and Luke hurried to unsheath his sword. Immediately, the girls pulled out bows, notched with metal tipped arrows aimed at Luke's body. Thalia bristled at the threat, she growled as she pulled out her spear, at the same time as an auburn haired girl stepped out from among the group. She looked around twelve, and was breathtakingly beautiful in a young, innocent way, but her face held something close to a sad sort of wisdom, something that shouldn't be seen in such a young girl.

"Thalia Grace?"

Thalia's eyes narrowed dangerously, "I don't use my surname."

The girl didn't seem to notice the hostility, "I'd like to speak with you."

"Why?" Thalia snorted.

The girl's face remained neutral, but the taller blonde girl beside her scowled and looked scandalized, Thalia grinned mockingly at her, and winked, causing the girl to give a shout of outrage,

"Do I have your permission to kill her miss?"

"Not in the slightest." The auburn haired girl replied absolutely impassively, barely lifting her head to acknowledge the question.

Thalia shot a smug glance at the blonde girl, who glared at her furiously. Luke stepped forward clearing his throat, only to have an arrow shot dangerously close to his feet. Raising his eyebrows at Thalia he shrugged in his nonchalant way, and took the step back.

"I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and these, my eternal maidens."

Luke's blue eyes widened with surprise, and a mixture of awe, hate, inferiority and bitterness settled in the pit of her stomach. She looked the goddess right in the eye, pouring as much hate as she could into the stare.

"Daughter of Zeus, you are fated to terrible tragedies."

"Thats just lovely, thank you tips."

"This isn't a joke you stupid girl!" The blonde girl snarled, she bared her teeth and pointed an arrow at Thalia menacingly. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Well, what is she supposed to do about it?" Luke asked angrily, his hand ran through his sandy blonde hair roughly, "What do you want from us?"

"I want her to join the hunt."

Luke, Thalia and the blonde girl all looked at the goddess incredulously. Luke stepped forward, in front of Thalia indignantly, protectively.

"You're not taking her."

"It's not really _your_ decision Luke."

Luke froze for a second, his body language stiff, before he turned to her, looking betrayed, and shocked. Thalia crossed her arms and stared back at him, raising an eyebrow and pursing her mouth. Luke looked at her for a moment, before his mouth quirked up into a crooked grin, and he stepped to the side. Thalia looked back at the hunters with scrutiny, she knew her answer, and so did Luke, but they did not.

"If I joined you, what would I get in return?"

"You would receive immortality, never aging, and getting to spend your life hunting monsters, and the blessing of Artemis."

Thalia smirked dryly, the blessing of a god- where was that when she needed it? Where were any of the god's blessings in their lives? Where was her father's blessing? She looked back at Luke, their eyes meeting long enough to share the sentiment before she turned back to the hunters, letting her face harden. Staring daggers at the blonde girl for a moment, she turned her attention to the goddess.

"I will not join you," Thalia said politely, coldly, controlled, before allowing her small smile to drop into a scowl, "I won't leave Luke, especially for you."

"Foolish girl, insulting the gods is not a game!" the arrogant blonde exclaimed, pulling up her bow. Thalia stared at her, raising her spear, ready to fight.

"Zoe, calm yourself." Artemis said coolly, it was obviously an order, and Zoe shifted her gaze to her feet, lowering her bow looking thoroughly chastened. Thalia snarled, goddess or not, she had no right to interrupt. Luke stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her back slowly. Thalia followed his coaxing reluctantly. The hunters began to disperse, the goddess leading them away, last to leave was Zoe.

"He will betray you one day, they all do, and he's no different."

Enraged, Thalia jerked Luke's hand off her shoulder and took an angry step toward the girl, ripping her spear out of its can. Who did this bitch think she was?who was she to say anything about Luke? She didn't know him, she had never heard his story, she had never seen that light in the sapphire blue eyes when he had pulled off a thievery, she had never seen him angry, or sad, or hopeful, she had never made a blood promise with him, or had to calm him down and hold him when he got angry at the gods that this girl _served_. Luke grabbed her waist, pulling her back with unyieldingly strong, as Zoe turned back to follow the hunters.

Thalia twisted around to glare at Luke, who winked at her, before wrenching herself from his grasp. She stalked past him and crouched down to continue cleaning her knives. Luke slowly turned and followed to sit beside her, pulling up his knees and resting his hands on them, rubbing his hands together anxiously, leaning back on a pine tree trunk as he watched her movements.

Thalia stopped cleaning her knives, feeling the weight of Luke's gaze. She returned it, and in his eyes she saw worry, relief, gratitude, anger, and an emotion she had never seen before mixed in. She lowered her eyes, and shifted her feet before speaking.

"I don't believe her."

Luke nodded curtly, dropping his chin onto his chest, bringing it back up to give her a half smile. Thalia read his smile, and frowned at the hidden sadness in it, standing up and stepping closer, she bit her bottom lip, as he looked up at her, surprised. Before she lost her nerve, she dropped next to him and pulled him into her embrace. Burying her face into his chest, she peeked out to check his response. He looked a little surprised, but he smiled at her, and wrapped his wiry arms around her smaller frame.

She closed her eyes; she didn't quite understand why she was doing this, she usually shied away from physical contact, but it just felt right. Luke rubbed circles on her back, and instead of being uncomfortable by the gesture, her skin tingled where his hand touched, leaving a burning sensation. She shifted slightly so that she could hug him more comfortably. Confused, slightly afraid, and indignant, she tried to pull away, giving him a reassuring smile, even though she was crumbling inside, but he saw her expression and pulled her back.

She let him.

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><p><strong>reviews are great,<strong>

**i love hearing what you have to say,**

**really,**

**i thank all the people who reviewed so far, you guys are awesome ;)**

**this chapter has been reworked a few times,**

**tell me what you think ;)**


	13. Chapter 7: Snow White

_-Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?_

_make a wish into the wishing well, _

_thats all you have to do, _

_and if you hear it echoing, _

_your wish will soon come true-_

_Snow White_

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><p>Luke Castellan was alive. Very much alive in fact, but he wasn't too sure about that at the moment. He opened his crystal blue eyes experimentally, closed them, and opened them again, everything was so bright, the dullest of colors were suddenly brilliant to his unused eyes. He raised one long fingered hand, holding it in front of his face so he could scrutinize it. It looked solid, felt solid, he made a fist, cracking his knuckles, yep, definitely solid.<p>

He grinned to the empty room, before sitting up slowly, wincing at the cracks in his back and arms as he stretched. He took a deep breath before he got to his feet unsteadily. He walked around the room a few times, stretching and popping joints until he felt renewed. He ran a hand over his face tiredly, before sitting back down on the bed, torn.

As good as he felt in his new body, he still couldn't work up the courage to leave the room. Outside of this room were people who hated him, who wanted to kill him, who's loved ones he had probably killed in return. He winced at the thought, he had _killed_ innocent people. He hadn't exactly had a choice, but their blood was still on his hands, still eating at his conscience. Annabeth was out there too.

His little girl, the one who he had had to watch hold up the sky at his hand, the one who he had sworn to protect with his life, the one who had been a daughter, a sister, and a friend to him. He knew she didn't hate him, and that he was forgiven, but he had seen the gray streak in her hair, and he knew it was his fault. As much as he looked down upon the son of the sea god, he was grateful that Percy had been there to pick up the pieces of the girl he had broken.

Then there was the other girl. The sarcastic, obnoxious, reckless, spikey haired, _beautiful_ other girl. The one he would (and did) go through hell for. The one he had had to break to save. But unlike Annabeth, the other girl knew how to put herself back together again without any help, having done it before. He closed his eyes tightly, breathing in deeply, yanking them open again as her angry face haunted behind his eyelids. He had to go see her, if only to make sure she was unharmed, intact, _his_.

He gathered together his courage, but it still wasn't enough, what if he just ended up hurting her again? Who did he think he was, barging back into her life like this? He thought back to their battle on Mount Tam. He remembered how she wore the same clothes she had when he had lost her, how her mouth set grimly as she took in his appearance, how her eyes had had that infinite amount of disappointment, but familiarity, as though she had been let down by so many people that it wasn't new to her, but he was the only one who had mattered. He remembered how she had yelled at him, how she had gritted her teeth, and how she would glance at Annabeth every so often just to make sure she was safe. Safe from _him_. He took in a ragged breath, and cleared his mind of these images of her. Remembering her this way wouldn't allow him to move forward. He pushed his memory back, to the times when he was the happiest.

Her grinning down at him as she beat him (again) in a spar, half smug and half affectionate. Her, as she tenderly wrapped Annabeth's young sleeping form in her leather jacket and her own blanket, and swiftly kissing her forehead when she thought he wasn't watching. Her, laughing breathlessly as they ran down the street trying to get rid of the cops that were chasing them, before grabbing his hand and hauling him down the nearest ally. Her, looking up at him through her ragged black fringe, giving him a coy smile and twining their fingers together. Her punching his arm, swearing and blushing when she found her bra in his backpack. The feel of her hand in his, the subtle looks and conversations they had using only their eyes. Her soft lips pressing hard against his, her lean body folding against him. Her teary electric blue eyes as she gave him her last kiss and ran towards her death. Her laughing, crying, talking, breathing, living, _being_.

Thalia.

He smiled without meaning to, rolling her name around his mind. He took his head out of his hands and took a deep cleansing breath. He could do this, he had to. He got up and made his way to the door carefully like he was walking on glass. Then the next thing he knew he was sprinting down the hill to her cabin, ignoring the shouts of the campers as he passed them. He skidded to a stop on her front step. Running a hand desperately through his hair he straightened his shirt and opened the door, he didn't bother knocking, she had never liked the polite gesture of asking permission to come in.

"Luke?"

It wasn't Thalia standing in the cabin, he noticed, with disappointment; it was Nico, son of Hades. The boy that Luke vaguely remembered was a short, thin, pale kid, with dark searching eyes and black hair almost the same color as Thalia's, reflecting a subtle shadowy light. That boy was gone. In his place stood the new Nico Di Angelo, not a short thin kid but a tall, muscled teenager. He was wearing all black, fitting, as the light around him seemed to bend away, as if it were repelled by him. His eyes still had their dark searching look, but the baby fat was gone from his face, leaving high, angled cheek bones and a thin face. The kid had turned out good, to say the least.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Luke asked, a slight edge of suspicion to his words, "Wheres… where is she?"

"I don't know if I should tell _you_ Castellan," Nico raised an eyebrow, hostility rolling off him, "planning your next murder?"

"Not hers," Luke retorted, giving the boy a pointed look.

Nico snarled, and stalked towards the door, Luke snagged one of his arms, wrenching him back around, "I need to talk to her, do you know where she is?"

"Get your hand off me, _traitor_. "

Luke let go with an impatient sigh, "You know as well as I do why I came back, why I'm even _here_. _Please_."

Nico scowled at him, dropping his eyes to the floor of the cabin as he mulled over what Luke had said.

"She's unconscious, "He started, and Luke's blood ran cold, and "we found her in here, on the floor, after we had a… meeting… in the big house. Her heart rate is slow; it would have to increase drastically for her to wake up, but we don't have any medical supplies that can do that safely."

"How?"

"Fairy dust." Nico answered sarcastically. Luke glared at him until he continued with a breath of exasperation, "Ben, probably. He crashed our meeting, and started being an ass and talking about how we shouldn't trust her."

"And?" something hard and sharp dropped into Luke's stomach at the mention of Ben. Images of Thalia, clutching his shirt sobbing, almost incoherent, rolled into his mind. His hands clenched, trembling with pent up anger, Ben's fault.

"He had this glass ball, some sort of compacted memory container, he said that it was full of Thalia's most important memories, like, when she got the most emotional or when she some big milestone moment. Then he threw it on the floor, and it shattered, and suddenly all of Thalia's memories got out and we all were forced to watch them. It was intense."

Luke staggered back; he grabbed the bedside table's edge to steady himself. He wondered vaguely what Thalia's most important memories were, if he was in any of them. Nico kept talking.

"We didn't know what to do after that, so we went looking for her, well, the campers did, the hunters stayed in the big house. Annabeth found her in here, lying on the floor," Nico said, "so, she ran to Chiron for help, and we got her to the medical room in the big house."

Luke pushed past the shadowy teen with a quick "thanks kid." He marched out, and jogged back up the hill. Wasn't it funny, that the whole time he was debating whether or not to go see her; she was lying in the room next to him? He rushed through the doors, and to the medical rooms. He pushed open a few doors before he found hers. He hesitantly rolled the doorknob and entered.

The room was pale pink, with cream colored sheets that matched the curtains. He knew the pale colors were supposed to calm him, or her, but he also knew that they weren't working. And that Thalia hated pink. _Thalia_.

She looked so small, inside the large hospital bed, and pale. He went to stand beside her, pushing her uneven bangs out of her closed eyes gently. She was fast asleep, her limbs tightly tucked around her body. There was a screen beside her bed with a wire that ran up to a clasped heart monitor on her wrist. The screen ran a single beat every few minutes, her heart rate.

Luke pulled up a chair; he sat down gingerly, clasping his hands and resting his chin on them. He almost laughed at her expression; she looked on edge, ready to leap into action even in her sleep. Her light freckles stood out at attention from the pale skin of her heart shaped face. Without thinking, Luke slowly moved so he was hovering over her slightly. The heart monitor picked up speed. Luke glanced at it in surprise; he moved closer, and the heart monitor picked up speed again. He grinned before moving so that his lips were only a few millimetres from hers. He was going to look back to see if this was working, but he found his gaze trapped on her mouth. Her lips were pink, and slightly parted, almost inviting him to kiss her. He didn't turn down the invitation.

Gently, so gently at first, before he felt her gasp against his mouth, and felt fingers twine into his hair, and her mouth begin to move desperately against his. She was alive, she was conscious, she was here, now with him. And she was _kissing_ him.

Then, suddenly, she went tense, her mouth became ice, and the fingers that were tangled in his hair were suddenly yanking him away painfully. She pushed him off the bed harshly, before jumping up and shoving him up against the wall. He yelped as she electrocuted him through her palms which were driving hard against his chest. His wide eyes met her own, angry, shocked, scared, _furious_, terrified, elated, hateful, emotions flying inside them before they were cut off and her eyes were a flat angry blue.

"You complete _asshole_!" She screamed furiously, "What the _hell _was that?"

"I-"

"You have no godsdamn right to kiss me." she yelled, enunciating every syllable, which hurt almost as much as her cold shocks of electricity, "if you _ever _try that again, I, personally, will make sure that you will never be able to kiss _anyone_ ever again!"

"You kissed me back!" he blurted, suddenly angry at her, he winced as her face shut down, no emotion was seeping through at all anymore, but he knew where to look. She was scared, he could tell by the slight almost unnoticeable arch of her eyebrows.

"I did not." She said flatly, threateningly, "that was me trying to get you the hell off me!"

Her voice shook in the second half of her sentence, and he noticed, "I had to get your heart rate up; it seemed to get your heart going when I was close to you."

His voice had been gentle but she looked as though he had slapped her. She staggered back, sitting back down on the hospital bed and pulling her knees up to her chest, "Why did you want to wake me up?"

"Same reason you woke me up."

"I doubt that."

He raised an eyebrow, "I remember when we were on that bus to Maine, you went into a rant about how stupid doubting was, for at least half an hour, do you remember that?"

"That doesn't matter anymore, things were different then."

"Things could be different now…"

She looked up at him, her face was stripped of all her pretend masks and guards, and she looked… fragile, as fragile as Thalia Grace can get, anyway. He realized then, that she must have been lived behind her masks for at least two years now, never letting anyone in because of him.

He had never hated himself more.

He reached out to her, but she turned away, setting her feet back down on the ground as she picked up her silver hunters circlet from the bedside table, twirling it around in her hands, she spoke.

"Just leave, Luke."

And because he couldn't possibly hurt her again, he did.

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><p><strong>YOu lucky people!<strong>

**three chapters in one day! **

**eh, you deserve them :)**

**unless they suck, then you deserve better ;)**

**REVIEWS ARE LOVE. **


	14. Memory 8: Little Blonde Angels

Thalia was always an early riser, so naturally today was no different. Luke was asleep on the opposite side of the fire pit, which was burning inside of an old tire, filling the air with putrid burning rubber smell. Thalia yawned and stretched out, scraping her hand against the red brick wall of the ally they were sleeping in, then sat in silence, debating on what to do next. She and Luke were sleeping between two old abandoned warehouses, they had needed to be closer to the city so Luke could steal them some food, somewhere in San Fransisco. The electric sign reading RICHMOND IRONWORKS flickered above her, lighting up the ally as sparks flew from it. She yawned, and scrubbed the sleep from her eyes tiredly.

Then, She heard a noise to her left, coming from just outside the ally, behind some wooden crates. She stiffened, sweeping the area quickly with a practiced eye she rubbed her shield bracelet, but decided to wake Luke up before she acted. She crept silently around the fire pit, and nudged Luke with her foot, he groaned and opened one eye to look up at her balefully, a question on his face, before he heard another scuffle from behind the tin sheet, and glancing up at her, he grimaced, and reluctantly got up, grabbing his sword and yanking it from the sheath. Thalia brought out Aegis and her spear. They edged along the wall, and around the crates. The sound was coming from a sheet of tin propped up against the wall, it shook as they got closer.

Glancing quickly at Luke, Thalia counted in her head even as Luke mouthed the numbers..._ one... two... three!_

Tossing the tin sheet away, he only just had time to duck as a blur of pink flannel and blonde hair leaped out from behind it, swinging a hammer towards his head. He grabbed the girl's wrist quickly and she dropped the hammer, Thalia watched as it clattered to the asphalt. The girl had her eyes squeezed shut and was kicking and screaming, "No more monsters! Go away!"

"It's okay! Thalia, put down your shield, you're scaring her!" Luke said calmingly, trying to get the girl to settle down.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked, as she tapped her shield back into her bracelet.

"Annabeth." The little girls gray eyes looked up at her fearfully, and Thalia was hit with memories of Jason.

Luke smiled gently. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth-you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

The little blonde girl's eyes widened. "You could?"

Thalia grinned, which was only a tiny bit fake, she didn't know how this little girl got out here, on the streets, and her grin faltered a little as she considered the child. Bright pink flannel brand-name pajamas, meant she came from a wealthy home, which didn't say much. Thalia came from a wealthy home; a wealthy home doesn't mean a happy home. The girl still had baby fat and an innocent look to her, that meant she hadn't been abused like Thalia had been, and she obviously hadn't been on the run very long, there was no wild animal look in her eyes like Luke and Thalia had. The little girl looked fairly intelligent, which meant that she didn't run away because she had to clean her room or something small like that. Thalia's heart ached as she thought about how Jason would have been around the same age as this girl by now, but she squelched the thought, returning to the task at hand.

"Oh yeah," Luke offered her the knife, the knife that Thalia had given him almost two years ago. Thalia's stomach dropped, and suddenly she felt like running from the alley, but again she brushed off the feeling, fixing a sarcastic grin onto her face. Luke held out the knife turning it around so the hilt was facing Annabeth. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Annabeth gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained using a gentle and teasing voice. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armour. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

The young blonde girl stared at him adoringly, "I am!"

Thalia forced a grin. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're…you're not going to take me back to my family? Promise?"

Annabeth looked up at her, she shook her head. "Of course not."

Luke smiled at her playfully, placing his hand on her tiny shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said with the trusting, innocent happiness that only a child possessed.

That night, Thalia watched as Luke tenderly wrapped the sleeping form of Annabeth in two of their blankets. They only had three, but Annabeth looked cold, and they didn't want her to freeze on her first day with them. Thalia was sitting a ways off from the camp, with her back to the fire, she was close enough to feel the flames and hear Luke whisper goodnight to Annabeth, but far enough so that they knew she wanted to be alone. Not that it stopped Luke from coming and plopping down beside her.

"It's weird, having a kid, isn't it?"

_Not really, seeing as I practically had a kid, while I was a kid…_Thalia thought as she looked away from him, blinking back tears as she replied, "yeah… weird."

Luke chuckled and drummed on his legs with his hands.

"I like her, she's got spunk," he started, "I like having someone other than the sarcasm queen in our family."

Thalia casually swiped at her eyes, and put on a pretend to pout, "You didn't mind traveling with me when I saved your ass from that Cyclops down in the coffee shop by Brooklyn bridge."

"Okay, my foot was stuck in that damn bag of coffee beans, if you hadn't pushed me into it; maybe you wouldn't have had to rescue me!"

Thalia laughed; leaning back against the brick wall of the warehouse she kicked his foot with her worn combat boot.

Luke grinned, he reached over and ran his hand through her short spiky hair, Thalia had to resist closing her eyes and sighing at his touch. She managed to restrain herself. Luke seemed to have a fascination with her hair, he ran his hands through it often, smoothing it down, ruffling it, or just playing with individual strands, but Thalia wasn't about to tell him off for it.

"Well, she might end up being a pretty good knife fighter, you never know."

Thalia's easy smirk almost dropped off. She looked away from Luke as she tried to replace it, tugging at a piece of her hair.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asked, as he looked at her sideways, as he crossed his legs.

"Talk about what?" Thalia asked, adding a hint of confusion into her voice, while pulling her worn leather jacket around herself more securely. A strange feeling was beginning to buzz inside her, making her uncomfortable with Luke sitting beside her, but at the same time, making it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world. She wondered if she should tell him about Jason, and how she wasn't sure whether she could handle having another child to look after when she had failed the first one so badly.

"You're angry with me."

"No I'm not."

Luke twisted to face her, leaning up against the red brick of the warehouse wall. He studied her a moment, then whistled.

"Yep, you're angry with me."

"Why would you think I was angry with you?"

"'cause you think I forgot that you gave me the knife I gave Annabeth," Luke started, Thalia glared at him, "I didn't forget Thals, I gave her the knife to show that she's our family now, and because I want to be to her what you are to me. Someone you can trust, no matter what."

Thalia looked away, she knew Luke was telling the truth, and that was exactly how she felt about him, among other things, but she didn't want to deal with the emotion that this conversation would bring up. Beside her Luke sighed,

"You can't keep avoiding this, Sparky," Luke bumped her shoulder with his, and she looked at him, bewildered, did he somehow know about Jason? Did he mean Annabeth, or something else entirely? "Sometimes you gotta face your fears."

"I'm not afraid of anything."

Luke looked at her like a parent would look at a lying child, and suddenly she wanted to punch him. Hard. but she didn't because he had snatched up her hand making her heart beat erratically, drumming against her ribs. He smirked easily; he slowly leaned forward and brushed his lips against her cheek, leaving a trail of electricity sparking below her skin. She was frozen; she couldn't move as he traced her jaw with his mouth and brushed his lips against hers, his warm breath invading her mouth and turning her insides to liquid, thawing her mind and body.

She almost gave in, she almost leaned in to kiss him. Almost. Instead, she yanked her hand from his, jumping to her feet she stalked back to the fire. Her thoughts were running around each other in circles, and her whole body was buzzing. She grabbed the last blanket up off the ground, horror playing across her face as it dawned on her that they'd have to share the blanket, or have one of them freeze. Luke had followed her shortly after she had left him sitting at the end of the ally; he stopped a few feet in front of her.

"You can take the blanket," Thalia started, looking everywhere but at his face, "I have a jacket."

"Don't be stupid." Luke muttered, pushing the blanket back into her arms, and walked back to Annabeth. He lay down with his back to Thalia. Angry, she threw the blanket at him, and settled on the opposite side of the fire. It wasn't very mature, but she thought she had earned a few minutes of immaturity.

The next morning Annabeth woke up wrapped snugly inside of all three of the blankets.

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><p><strong>dadada! Annabeth is here! <strong>

**excitement!**

**oh, and um, little bit of thuke :3**

**next chapter will be present time, so**

**read an review!**

**and thnk you to all my faithful readers and reviewers, i love you guyses :) **


	15. Chapter 8: Ben

Ben watched impassively as Luke exited the big house building. He wondered why the son of Hades had begged for the traitor to be revived, but he understood now. The youngest Di Angelo knew what he was trying to accomplish, and was trying to stall him. Ben almost laughed at the thought. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his dusty grey jeans and started down towards the Hades cabin.

Reviving Luke was actually more of a help than a hindrance, the traitor was helping the plan evolve much more smoothly. Ben loped easily down the dirt path, whistling to himself a tune that hadn`t been played or sang for centuries.

He stopped at the large black cabin of Hades, and knocked on the door casually. Nico answered, opening the door and rubbing his wide dark eyes against the light outside. Nico was dressed in a crumpled black tee shirt with his signature skull pattern on it, as well as a pair of gray sweatpants, it was obvious by the teen's messed black hair that he had been sleeping.

"Di Angelo." Ben's voice was curt, emotionless, clean.

"Oneiroi." Nico spit his last name out like a dirty word.

Ben raised an eyebrow, and chuckled, "am I invited in?"

Nico's mouth twitched into a smile, which looked almost threatening on him, "Nah, I think you're good there."

Ben sighed as he pushed passed the boy, into the dark cabin. The air in the room was weighted, held down by a cloying smell of something that smelled like incense and cigarettes. The room was dimly lit by twin green torches at either sides of the room, and the inside was decorated like the inside of a black rock cave. Nico shut the door and turned around with crossed arms.

Nico's grin twisted up, his tone was sharp, almost viscous, "what are you doing here Ben?"

"Why are you trying to stop me?" Ben countered, still emotionless, clasping his hands behind his back. He was pleased to see Nico scowl angrily, "is it because of Thalia? Is this some kind of desperate, unrequited love conquest?"

Nico looked like he was being strangled, he glared at Ben, before answering in a tight, insulted voice, "for _Thalia_? Yeah, I can totally see that working out," He rolled his eyes and waved a hand off at the question, "No Ben, I'm trying to stop you, because you have no right to follow through with this."

Ben's composure cracked a little, "No _right_? I have every right! And so would you if you grew a spine and joined me!"

"We've already been through this; did you miss the whole freaking _war_ we just had?" Nico exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, "This has all been done before, why not pick up on a little originality?"

"Luke didn't know what he was doing, he was a pawn for a much larger force than he understood," Ben stepped closer to the son of hades, his voice dropping into a low tone, "You don't seem to understand the chance I'm giving you, why you would not take it?"

"Because the outcome isn't what you think it will be." Nico spat, they were nose to nose now, Ben could feel the open hostility rolling off the younger demigod.

"It's not the outcome I look forward to." Ben replied monotonously. He walked over to the cabin's door, before turning around one last time, "You could be so much more than you are, but you choose to be the dog they kick instead, don't think that you'll be spared for your loyalty."

Then he was gone.

…

When Ben was little, he used to imagine himself into the very best of the Greek wars, but unlike the other boys his age who were playing the hero and waving around wooden toy swords, Ben would imagine himself as the mastermind behind the battles. At the end of the game he would always be the one to kill Zeus or Hades.

Then he grew older, and the games that he played as a toddler became tactics and references. At around twelve, Ben was expelled from seven different schools, the last one for manipulating one of the students into killing a faculty member that had given him a bad review. The others were of similar history.

Not many people could say that they really knew who Ben was, his personality could change within a blink of the eye to suit his purpose. His motives were his own, and for no one else's benefit, usually the opposite, and he had a casual, persuasive way to getting what he wanted. He turned a corner into the forest, mulling over the possibilities of what needed to be done.

The conceiving of ideas, the subtle flicks of the imagination, the subconscious desires in dreams; _that_ was what Ben was after. He would never admit this to anyone, but Ben never dreamed when he slept. Ben had no mindset other than this cold, uncompassionate one; he didn't seem to have the ability to care about anything or anyone past his own plans. His mother had taken him to a specialist once when he was younger, when this sort of thing was a new discovery, and he had been labeled as a sociopath, a phsyco. But Ben had known, he had known since birth who he was, who he had to become.

As for his interest with Thalia, he just happened to know what she was capable of, more so than herself. Ben knew exactly what the daughter of Zeus was, and what she could do for him.

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><p><strong>MEH! <strong>

**um... i have very little excuse for poor updating other than the fact that i was not in the right mindset to work on this... :3**

**so. um. this is kinda filler-ish, and actually very few of the chapters I have up are the ones i'm excited for, but whatevs, for those who stick with me to the end i promise good things :P**

**i just got some new inspirations for how i want this to end up, so hopefully i can get motivated to write,**

**THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS 3**

**there are scarce few of you, but i appreciate you guyses *virtually tries to hug you, fails and creeps most of you out***

**and um... i hope to get more up soon to make up for my loathsome work ethic :$**

**so KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING! MOTIVATION AND CRITISIZATIONS ARE ECOURAGED, POINTLESS FLAMERS ARE BEHEADED AND BEATEN WITH A STICK :D**


	16. Memory 2: Family Dynamics

_-Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives-_

_Maya Angelou_

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><p>The doorbell rang, a light, musical noise that chimed through the house, echoing beautifully against the walls. Thalia wondered how such a beautiful noise could foretell visits from such horrible people, like her mother's manager, or her mother's boyfriends or her mother's publicist or worst of all, her mother.<p>

Sighing heavily, the seven year old scrambled to get out of her bean bag chair, and ran towards the door. She smoothed down her long black hair, and tried to straighten out her school uniform, a stiff grey skirt, course white collared shirt and a black blazer, before she took hold of the doorknob and counted silently in her head, five seconds to hell, four seconds, three, two, two and a half… one! With that, she threw the door open, putting on her biggest fake smile, which faltered slightly as she realized that the man on the other side of the door was not a manager.

He stood with his hands clasped in front of his dark blue and white pin-striped suit. She noticed that the part of his hair that was black, matched his tie exactly, the rest was peppered with grey and white. He had very straight features, his nose was a straight angle, (matching her own nose curiously) and his eyebrows were just as straight, even his bright blue eyes had a straight look to them.

At the same time, he was not an ugly man, in fact, he was quite handsome, and he had the air of someone who always gets what he wants. He looked down at Thalia, and her lingering somewhat fake smile dropped completely at his expression. He wasn't frowning, he didn't look upset or angry, but he looked at her as if she were something embarrassing, as if she was a stain he now needed to clean up.

"May I come in?" he asked, his voice rumbled, like thunder, but with a lighter tone. She stepped out of the way shyly, closing the door behind him as he took a step inside. "Do you know who I am?"

"No." he smiled at her answer, it wasn't a kind smile, but a smile that says that you are badly misinformed, and should be put in your place. Thalia looked at him defiantly, "Are you here for my mother?"

"Only if she's here."

Thalia rolled her eyes, but turned to go and find her mother.

Thalia ran up the stairs, taking two at a time in leaps, she stopped at her mother's door and knocked. A muffled voice from inside yelled something at her, but she couldn't tell what it was saying, nor could she tell if it was even her mother's voice. She opened the door a crack and quickly told whoever it was inside that a man was here to see her mother. She heard some crashes as she closed the door, heard a bit of yelling, and scrambling out of bed, she heard the window being opened, and then someone climb out swearing at whoever was left in the room, she heard drawers being opened and slammed shut and a hairdryer turn on,then running water.

Finally her mother appeared at the door, her hair was brushed and her makeup was on, and she was wearing an embarrassingly revealing silk bathrobe, complete with bright red slippers. She looked down at her daughter expectantly.

"He's in the kitchen," Thalia told her exasperatedly, sighing as her mother pushed her aside and walked purposefully down the stairs. She caught a whiff of her mother's perfume as she followed her down, the smell of rich wine mixed with chocolate, and as they entered the kitchen, it was mixed with the smell of the man, adding mountain air and ozone into the mix. Her mother froze as she saw the man, her mouth opened with a small pop and her eyes widened.

Then suddenly, she had flung herself violently at him, beating his broad chest viscously and snarling obscenities into his straight black tie. Thalia backed away slowly warily, unsure of what the man had done, but very sure that what her mother was doing would somehow end up back firing.

"Destiny!" the man yelled, he didn't seem surprised as he pushed her away and held her about a foot from himself, his voice was sharp, it held authority, and was a much worse blow than her mother's feeble punches, "Stop."

"Stop? _Stop!_ You think that you can just walk right into my house, after what you did to me, and tell me to _stop?_!" Destiny Grace's face was lit with anger, she looked both terrified, and terrifying as she pointed at Thalia, "after leaving me with _this_?"

"Destiny, that's our daughter." he informed her angrily, letting go of her arms, but still not looking at Thalia, still not recognizing that she was in fact, in the room at all, "You know I can't be around to take care of her, I had to leave her with someone who could!"

"But I didn't want to have her in the first place!" Her mother screamed, throwing her hands up in the air, the man gave a weary sigh and tugged a piece of his hair from behind his ear.

"Did you think that I did? Susanne, I have a family already, I didn't want another!" He growled, rubbing his temples slowly in counter clockwise circles.

"Then why are you here?" her mother's voice was broken, begging, ragged, but it wasn't hopeful, "why did you come then?"

"I came because I realized how much I missed you, how much I lost by not being here, with you." The man's face softened, he offered her his hands, almost as a surrender, Thalia found a note of falsehood to this claim, but her mother threw herself sobbing at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Neither of them noticed the shocked little girl who had just witnessed all this, neither of them noticed as she backed away and descended the stairs to her room.

...

Two months later, Thalia had learned about her father, she learned that he was solemn, that he didn't like spending time with her, that when he wasn't with her mother in their room, he was either watching the television, or had left to some mysterious place until the next day. She learned that he liked to make dramatic scenes in front of her mother's friends and colleagues and she learned that he never ate with them.

She also learned that he was a god.

Nine and a half months later, Thalia had a little brother, (she hated the idea of having another child in the house until she met him) and she absolutely loved him, her mother hadn't wanted another, but her father had made sure that she wouldn't abort the baby. Thalia wondered why her father had come back at all since he obviously didn't like her, or the new baby. Her father had decided to name him Jason, but that's the only thing he had to do with his son at all.

It was the now eight year old Thalia that fed Jason the special baby formula, it was Thalia that played with him, and it was Thalia who decided that he would sleep in her room so that she didn't have to climb the stairs to his room every night to get him to stop crying. She began skipping elementary school just so she could stay home and make sure her mother didn't go near him.

Jason looked nothing like his sister, he had blonde hair and soft features, the only thing that they shared was the bright blue eyes from her father. She got some weird looks from people on the streets as she took him for walks in his stroller by herself, but Thalia had been hardened against such looks a long time ago.

...

Thalia woke to her crying baby brother for the third time in the night, exhausted to the point of tears, Thalia bit down on her bottom lip as she lifted Jason out of his crib and rocked him until he was gurgling happily, thinking that she was doing a good job but knowing in her heart that he should have a real mother to do this for him. She sighed as she noticed the empty baby bottle, and picked it up, stumbling tiredly up the stairs until she reached the kitchen.

As she opened the door to the refrigerator, she heard whispering, she paused and strained her ears to hear where it was coming from. She closed the refrigerator door silently, her slim black eyebrows knit together with confusion and apprehension. She put down the bottle as she got closer to the whispering, it was coming from the bathroom, the door was slightly ajar, so she angled herself so she could see in without being seen. It was her father; he was talking to the sink. As she looked closer she realized that the tap was running, with a piece of gum shoved into the faucet to make a spray of water, and in the spray, there was a woman.

She was beautiful, in a distant, untouchable way, her hair was lightly dusted with grey, but the rest was auburn, the color of autumn leaves. Her mouth was a hard line, full lips pulled tight as she looked up at Thalia's father through the spraying water. Thalia's breath caught as she noticed the goddess's (because there was no doubt the woman was a goddess) eyes. An icy, cold color, undecipherable between grey and blue, but somewhere in between the two, they were eyes that captivated, that burned and looked like they never laughed.

"Enough." She was saying, and her voice sent shivers down the eight year olds spine, it was brittle, angry, but weary, "you've made your point, come back to Olympus, where you belong."

"Are you going to apologize?" her father's voice was playful, but there was an undercurrent of tension, "if you do apologize, I might return to you."

"Your so stubborn!" the woman's eyes flashed, "I will not apologize for being angry that you broke your oath, twice now, over some mortal!"

"Tell me you're not going crazy with jealousy right now," her father grinned down at the woman, "tell me that my plan isn't working, that you're not green with envy over this mortal."

Thalia's stomach clenched as she realized the reason her father had returned. It wasn't because of her mother, it wasn't because he missed them, it was his plan to get the woman in the water jealous. And after he accomplished this, he was just going to leave them again, leave her again with her mother, and now a little brother to protect from her. Fury rose in Thalia's chest, the taste of bile filled her mouth, and angry tears filled her eyes as she heard the woman respond.

"Of course I'm jealous!" she yelled, "you're my husband! She has no right to have you! I don't care how many bastard children she has by you!"

Her father smirked, wagging his finger at the image of his wife, "I knew it. I knew it had to be eating at you, now if you apologize, then I'll come back."

"You aren't upset about the girl; this is about your wounded pride," the woman growled, "I won't indulge your pride unless you indulge mine, come home, then I might apologize."

"Alright, I'll leave right away." Her father smiled slyly at the water image again and swiped a hand through the spray. The image shimmered, then disappeared, Thalia watched unseen as he wiped his hand on the towel beside the sink. Without taking the gum out of the faucet, he turned around and opened the door. Thalia stood motionless as he stared, surprised and embarrassed. He bent down and took her face in his large hands.

"How much of that did you hear child?" he asked, she could hear the slight disapproval in his voice, and she turned her face out of his hands.

"Your leaving." It sounded childish, even to her own ears, but she couldn't take the stinging humiliated anger out of it. He sighed heavily and stood up.

"Yes, I am," he looked down at her as if he was trying to find words to make this better, to close up the wound on her heart that he had reopened, "but that doesn't mean I can't be your father anymore…"

Thalia shut her eyes tightly, she pushed her wavy black hair behind her ears before opening them again, and "You've never been my father. You'll never be my father, and you'll never be Jason's father. Leave, go back to your real family, just like you did when I was born."

With that the eight year old girl turned and ran back, down the stairs, into her room, slamming the door. Of course, that woke the baby up, and she had to pick him up and dry his tears as she tried to dry her own. She took him into her own bed that night, and slept with his tiny form curled into her side.

The next morning, her mother yelled and screamed, throwing tantrums worse than the baby. Thalia spent the day huddled under the covers, bouncing the baby on her knee with the door to her room locked securely.

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><p><strong>AHA! <strong>

**so i felt bad about not updating for a while, **

**so another double feature for you guys :p**

**and um. reviews are what nice people give me, and i know you are all _very_ nice people ;) **

**(did the guilt tactic work?)**

**muahaha :)**


	17. Memory 3: Broken

She had packed everything. Thalia threw the worn green duffel bag carelessly onto the bed, and while holding a four year old Jason's stuffed bear in her left hand, she tried to fit one of her sundresses into the bag. Her mother yelled for her to hurry up.

"I'm packing as fast as I can!" she yelled, looking up at where her mother would be yelling from and flipping that piece of ceiling the bird, mouthing a silent profanity. Jason toddled into the room a few minutes later, sucking his thumb happily. Thalia had always kept him far away from her mother, her boyfriends and her publicists, and had tried to give him a good upbringing, as good as what a twelve year-old girl could give at least. She hadn't learned exactly firsthand what a good upbringing was, but she had seen some television shows that gave her some ideas. She tried to teach him what life skills she had, and tried to make him happy, taking him for walks, scrounging for money to buy him ice cream, and even stealing her mother's credit card once to give him the Christmas presents she had never gotten. She arranged for him to go to a preschool while she was at her school, making sure that the teachers knew that no one but her was allowed to pick him up.

"Tally?" Jason's pet name for her snapped her out of her thoughts, "I want my bear, puh-lease?

Thalia grinned as she took the bear out of the bag she had just packed it in. she walked over and scooped up the young boy, handing him the bear and kissing him on the nose, chuckling as Jason held out the bear for her, and she kissed the bear's nose too. Sliding her giggling brother onto her back she picked up the duffel bag, and climbed the stairs. They were going on a family trip, (ew…) as her mother's manager had told her that if she didn't spend some time with her children, the headlines on tomorrow's magazines would be covering how she neglected them in favour of fame. Thalia had laughed when she heard this, earning her a fat lip and a bruised cheek.

They were heading to a hotel by the sea, and her mother was in a particularly bad mood because she wasn't allowed to bring Danny, one of her 'boyfriends' (read man-toy). So to compensate, she had packed a dozen bottles of Smirnoff, Italian wine and two or three bottles of vodka, only the good stuff.

Thalia watched the scenery rush by as the car drove down the twisting roads, Jason was making sound effect noises for the tiny action figures he had clutched in his tiny hands, every now and then, he would throw one of them at his sister, just to see how she reacted. Pushing down her less than pleasant thoughts, she would smile and pick the toy up from the ground, making it fly back to her brother's hands as he eagerly reached for it. It was a long and tiring trip, even for the normally energetic four year old, Thalia had to carry his sleeping form in one arm as she also carried their bag, and her mother's bag full of alcohol.

Her mother checked in, making sure to open another button of her shirt so that the man checking them in could see right down the front. He stuttered as he clumsily tried to pick up the keys to their room, swallowing hard as she took the keys and gave him a sultry look. Nauseous, Thalia looked away, as Jason stirred in her arms, making a yawning sound, she grinned at the sleeping blonde haired boy; she didn't even mind that he was drooling on her thin white shirt.

Her mother sighed impatiently as she held the door open for her suitcases, while Thalia attempted to carry all the bags and Jason at the same time. She looked at her mother in disgust, before straightening and dropping the bag that contained her mother's drinks down the stairs. Her mother cringed as she heard the bottles inside crash every step along the way, and soak the inside of the bag. Thalia put on an overly contrite expression, exclaiming in a voice laced with sarcasm and poison, "Oh gosh! I am soooo sorry! It just slipped right out of my hand!"

Destiny Grace just clenched her teeth, and gave her a fake smile that came out in a grimace. Beckoning jerkily for her children to hurry along into the elevator, she shouted for one of the staff to clean up the mess. Thalia walked tensely inside as the metal doors slammed shut, she positioned Jason on the arm furthest from her mother as she dropped the rest of the bags in between them. The elevator ride was an icy quiet, Thalia wondered how her brother could sleep through the deafening silence. Finally they reached their room; it was furnished in a grungy 50's styled carpet, and large wicker furniture, the two beds had a pale green bedspread, with a grey woollen sheet flung over them. Thalia was surprised; her mother wasn't throwing a fit over the grungy decor. She was already gone, having left her daughter to unpack alone. Thalia carefully lay Jason down on one of the beds, her heart squeezing as his hands reached out for her again, and he whimpered from the loss of warmth. She tucked him into the lime coloured covers, making sure to tuck the sheets up close to his chin.

Thalia grinned at the sight of her sleeping brother, his hands curled into half-fists, and his mouth slightly open in a slight o. His eyes wandered beneath their lids aimlessly, causing her to wonder what he was dreaming about. He mumbled and stretched out on the bed, reminding Thalia of a kitten she had once seen sleeping on a trash can lid when she was five. She had taken the kitten, and tried to feed it some of her mother's wine, not understanding why the creature wouldn't drink the strong crimson liquid.

She had been upset when her mother had told her that she couldn't keep it, and had told her that she would get her manager to take care of it. Like the naïve five year she had been, she had relinquished the tiny animal to her mother's manager, only to find it road kill on the street of their school the next day.

She smoothed some of the golden hair out of the boy's face and silently promised not to let him end up like her kitten. And after shoving the faded green duffel bag under the bed, Thalia crawled under the covers next to her brother and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been her companion along the trip.

Thalia's dreams were never pleasant, all of them were vivid, colourful dreams, where she knew exactly what was happening, and still had the memory of who she was. She had dreams of monsters, the monsters that she caught glimpses of in crowds or under hoods that covered their scaled or hairy faces. She had dreams of flying, where she vainly tried to control the tumbling, tossing winds that her father sent to knock her out of the sky. She had dreams about a boy, a beautiful blonde boy who had the wings of an angel, but instead of them being on his back, the gold and silver angel wings attached themselves to his ankles, allowing him to fly alongside her, smirking slightly, as if he knew something that she desperately was trying to learn. And then she would wake up, she would hear Jason crying, and she would go and get one of his bottles to calm him with.

But now, she woke up to silence, Jason wasn't crying, it didn't sound like the boy was breathing. Her eyes snapped open as she searched for his form under the covers, the warm indent that he left was there, but there was no sleeping body there. She jerked harshly out of bed, yanking back the covers to confirm her fears before dashing madly out of bed to search the room. He wasn't in the hotel room, and neither was her mother, disjointed thoughts and facts tumbled around in her head while her teeth bit into her bottom lip as she ran wildly toward the elevator, taking the stairs two at a time when it didn't come fast enough. She tore through the lobby, ignoring the disapproving glares, until she got to the front desk.

"My brother, have you seen my brother-" She gasped trying to catch her breath, "have you seen a blonde four year old boy wandering around?"

The front desk man looked down derisively at her, he had small round glasses, tiny eyes and a long pointed face, and he also had a thin grey moustache that seemed to twitch slightly as he talked in a slight accent that suggested he was born somewhere in Europe, "I'm sorry, I have not seen him, but can you please refrain from playing games in the lobby? People are trying to check in."

"Well they can wait their damn turn!" Thalia shouted, earning everyone in the lobby's attention, "look, I'm not playing a game, I'm looking for my missing brother. Destiny Grace checked in here earlier, did you see her leave the building?"

"I'm sorry, but we keep everything we know about our guests confidential, if you could wait here a moment I-"

"She's my mother!" Thalia interrupted, completely fed up with the man, "Tell me whether you saw her leave!"

"Yes, she left around ten minutes before you got here miss." The man swallowed and fingered his tie nervously, he offered her a fake helpful smile, probably trying to make up for his rudeness to Destiny Grace's daughter, but she was already gone.

She ran out into the streets, she didn't know where exactly she was going but she somehow knew exactly where to find them. She sprinted out of the small town, out to the cliffs that separated the sea and the land. The cliffs were massive walls of rock; the waves broke against them in crashes, and her footsteps matched each crash as she ran. Off in the distance she saw a huddled form near the edge of the cliff, and with panic clawing at her chest she stopped. It was a woman's form that was heaped; sobbing by the edge, but there was no laughing, crying, whimpering, burping, giggling, playing, living boy anywhere. Thalia's mind seized on her mother's shaking body; she walked slowly, like a zombie, towards her.

"What did you do?" Thalia choked out, as she reached hearing distance from her mother. Her hands trembled, and her heart was in her throat, but strangely she felt calm, almost as if she were in a trance. Her mother sputtered a few incoherent sentences, in a distant, indifferent part of Thalia's mind, she remembered how her mother could go from totally on top of things to completely disoriented and out of control in a heartbeat, that same unattached part of her also knew that a daughter should never have to be worried that her brother's life was endangered by his own mother. But, then again, she never had been his mother anyway. "Destiny. What did you do with him?"

"gone… he's gone, gone, gone… he's gone and he won't come back…"

Ice flooded her veins as her throat constricted, She took the fragments of her mother's broken statement and tried fitting them together in any way possible that didn't mean that her brother was dead, gone. She took her mother's arms, and shook slightly, turning the woman's tear ravaged face towards her, "what do you mean? What do you mean he's gone? What did you do?"

She was yelling, the waves were crashing against the cliffs but it felt like they were crashing over her, the icy cold December water tumbling over her and taking away her restraint and replacing it with blind panic and anger; she shook her trembling mother again before realizing that her mother wasn't upset about her son's disappearance. He's gone, and he won't come back, her mother was sobbing not over her son's death, but from her father's departure. Rage took over the panic, she threw the slumped form of her mother back to the ground in disgust, whatever had happened here had resulted in her brother's death, and it was all Destiny Grace's fault.

"You tried to get his attention." Thalia stated, her own voice deadly quiet carrying just above the now howling winds and the angry waves, "you tried to get his attention, by killing your own son?"

Destiny Grace's heaving dry sobs didn't register to Thalia's ears, this wasn't her mother, this was a monster. Thunder rumbled distantly, as if making a point to show how loud it could be. Thalia swore at the sky, screaming profanities as she stuck her middle finger up to the storm clouds. Her father was watching, always watching.

"He wasn't yours to take from me!" she screamed, sliding to her knees as she continued to yell, her hands out, as if offering herself in exchange for her dead brother, "You never cared for him! He was your son and you don't even know what his favourite color was!"

It wasn't relevant at all, but Thalia found these small facts to be extremely important as she yelled up at her father, "I know you were watching! I know you sat by and did nothing!"

The heaped figure of Destiny Grace sat up wide eyed as rain came pouring down from the sky. Lightning struck the sea again and again, while the winds keened and swept the rain from the air, whirling around the slumped, anguished form of her daughter. The lightning flashed, lighting the sky, and bleaching the girl's pale skin a sharp white, while her hair was swept back from her face, causing her to look absolutely terrifying. Destiny Grace was suddenly more scared than she had ever been in her life, because this might be the end of it.

Thalia looked down at the vulnerable form of her mother, so easily could she twitch a finger, and the woman could be out of her life forever. Her entire body pulsed with energy, life, and death, the elements belonged to her, and she felt like she could tear down Olympus if she wanted, an eye for an eye. But suddenly, she was scared, there was no control over the storm that had welled inside her, it could kill her and everyone in the town, if she allowed it to.

She inhaled, the taste of sea water and burnt earth, and then let it go. The winds died down reluctantly, the thunder retired back to its haven in the sky; the lightning followed its rumbling sister as the rain dwindled off. The stars shone through the blanket of night as Thalia Grace opened her eyes again, stood up, and walked away without a backward glance.

A few days later, she would cut her hair into a spiky, ragged mop, using a Swiss army knife that she found on the street. A few weeks later, she would steal clothes and her old beaten leather jacket from the house that she used to live in. A month later, the headlines of the newspapers would tell the public of Destiny Grace's loss, both her children dead after falling off cliffs while on vacation. In a month and a half, she would let her surname fall away until she was Thalia. Just Thalia.

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><p><strong>gar. i apologize for my lack of updates.<strong>

**FREAKING EXAMS!**

**i shall try to be better from now on :D**

**thanks for the reviewwwss :)**

**i tried to incorporate jason in here, even if the rest of the story past the last olympian has been taking out :$**

**ENJOY! :D**


	18. Memory 10: Dead

_-To die would be an awfully big adventure-_

_Peter Pan_

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><p>Inhale, left foot, exhale, right foot, inhale, left, exhale, right, gasp, stumble on left, choke, drag right foot, can't keep running… pushing a stumbling Annabeth ahead of her as Grover their new (somewhat useless) Satyr guide galloped ahead, and Luke ran doggedly behind them. She could hear the creatures behind them, gaining on them, the mass paws, and hooves, gaping jaws and reaching claws were always closer every time she looked back.<p>

Annabeth who had been determined not to show her exhaustion earlier was now desperately gasping for breath, and stumbling over the uneven ground. Thalia summoned some of her last reserves of strength and scooped up the little blonde girl. Annabeth was heavy, but Thalia would rather die than have one of the monster's behind them hurt the small girl that was now clinging to her shoulder. The fierce protectiveness she held for the little blonde demigod gave her enough energy for another couple of yards, but soon exhaustion as well as despair overtook her again, and she panted as she forced her burning legs to run.

She could still hear Luke breathing hard behind them; it was the only sound that let her know he was still alive, the only sound that was keeping her from keeling over and giving up right then and there. Grover was ahead of them, yelling and bleating at them to hurry, his Rasta hat barely holding on to his head as he galloped clumsily up the hill.

The world seemed to speed up and come back into focus as a fury swooped down, almost taking off Thalia's head; she swore and swiped up with a dagger, missing it only by an inch. She pushed herself forward, running as hard as she could. Luke yelled in surprise from behind them, but she couldn't turn to see what happened to him, unless she wanted to trip over one of the thick roots on the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying for any chance that Luke was still behind them, until she heard his ragged breathing behind them again.

She blew out in relief, Annabeth whimpered into her shoulder, and clutched her knife tighter in her tiny hand. Thalia's heart broke at the sound, and she suddenly was assaulted with the thought of Annabeth trying to protect herself against monsters five times her size, then again at the thought of Luke trying vainly to protect her. But they wouldn't die, she couldn't let them die for her, they were everything that she lived for.

Resolve hardened her face and heart as she whispered into Annabeth's ear, "Annabeth? I need you to run with Grover 'kay kiddo? you need to be the strong one now, got it?"

Fear dominated her small heart shaped face, but she nodded and held her knife tightly. Thalia put her down and gave her a push up the hill, turning around just in time for Luke to almost run into her, grabbing her hand tightly and pulling her a few steps up the hill. He looked back at her incredulously as he felt her resistance.

"What the hell are you doing!" he yelled as he tried to keep pulling her, "we have to go!"

"Luke..." he looked back at her, recognition, horror and exasperation twined uneasily on his face as he growled,"No!"

He nimbly grabbed her around the waist and flung her up into his arms, ignoring her shout of surprise and indignation.

"Luke! Put me down!" Thalia pounded on his chest, but he kept running with a stubborn look on his face, though so much slower now that he was burdened with her weight, until finally he lost his grip and she tumbled out of his arms. scrambling to her feet, she shoved him roughly up the hill, panic over taking her as he showed no signs of going. He grabbed her arms and looked at her gravely.

"What are you going to do?"

She looked up at him long and hard, knowing that this would be how she remembered him, wide-eyed, panicked and desperate, and took his anguished face in her hands. She kissed him hard then, putting all her desperation, love, panic and anger into it. He responded in kind, straining her closer, twisting his hands up into her short moppy black hair, but she pulled away, shoving him up the hill.

"ThaliaIloveyou…" he whispered rushedly, all his words coming out mashed together and almost indecipherable, but weighing down on her heart all the same as she steeled her face and pushed him again.

"Go you idiot! Annabeth won't make it without you, I know, I love you… I love you, I love you, IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou…" she repeated over and over, until it was incoherent, letting her forehead fall onto his chest, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, before shoving him up the hill towards Annabeth. He finally went, running towards the camp and scooping Annabeth up in his arms as he sprinted.

Thalia turned, inhaling deeply and taking out her knives she rushed towards the monsters, who were making horrible noises in their anticipation. She spun around with her knives out, taking the first of them out, she fought the larger ones off long enough for her to send bolts of energy at them, disintegrating them, She managed to kill the second wave of monsters, with only light injuries. Then came the Furies, clawing at her shoulders and back, she cried out and looked up to swipe at them with her shield, only to have a hell hound pounce on her from behind, she was thrown to the ground, with the huge dog on her, she cried out as the monsters descended on her, clawing and biting, tearing her clothes and her skin, the Furies cackled as they signalled for the monsters to leave off. Reluctantly, they receded, licking their jaws as they crawled into a hole in the ground that had been opened for them.

And as Thalia lay broken, she was reminded of the time her mother had ripped apart a doll she had owned, the only doll really, and threw it into the garbage in a fit of alcoholic passion. She remembered how the doll had looked, the stuffing coming out, the eyes torn off, and chuckled slightly at how much it must resemble her right now. She couldn't feel her broken body though; it was as if she was looking down at it from a bird's eye view, only mildly interested. Luke was running down the hill, while Grover held Annabeth back, no doubt Luke was running as fast as he could, but it seemed like everything was in slow motion. He slid to a stop on his knees, touching her face as tears streamed down his own, he was saying something, and she scrunched up her face trying to hear what it was.

"Don't leave me… don't leave me Thals… come back! Come back dammit! Thalia!"

"I love you."

"You promised, you promised... you can't go! You can't! Thalia,_ Thalia_! you can't die! You promised!" Luke was barely coherent, he was raining sloppy tear-soaked kisses on her lips, her eyes, her cheeks, her neck, everywhere there wasn't clothes or blood was covered in his kisses, her hands were in his tight grip, and even though she knew she was dying for him, she was suddenly disgusted with herself for leaving him like this. She had saved his life, but had broken his heart.

Thalia found herself doing something she had never done before, she prayed to her father, to any god listening, praying for a miracle. She knew she wasn't praying for herself, but even so it made her uncomfortable placing her hopes in the divine entities that had repeatedly destroyed them. Suddenly, Luke was thrown away like a ragdoll, Thalia cried out in protest but before she could think, or speak or do anything, the lightning hit her.

The lightning was too overwhelming, it crackled over her dying body pouring life into her, too much life, she didn't think she could handle so much of it, she tried to protect herself, she imagined throwing up big strong barriers between her and the pulsing life-light that was hitting her. She screamed, she couldn't take it all in, she was burning!

Then suddenly it stopped, but her imaginary walls stayed up, even when she tried to mentally take them down. She tried opening her eyes, without response, she tried moving at all, without response. She probably should have been worried, but instead all she could feel was groggy, passively wondering whether or not she could sleep like this, inside of the rough walls. She could.

So the tree slept, oblivious to the broken boy she had left falling against her trunk.

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><p><strong>oh hai dere :)<strong>

**so um... its been a while hasn't it...? :S**

***smiles sheepishly at screen then realizes you can't see this so types it out***

**So I basically am renovating everything but the stuff i already have up, so updates could be rare unfortunatly :(**

**but i shall try my best not to get this behind again xD **

**reviews keep me going ;)**

**i'll probably post another soon, i think i'm going to do one or two more memories before i get back to the plot, just because you guys are justly impatient and those are the ones i'm finished so far ;)**

**love and hugs abound for all**

**-miss. alaneous 3**


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